POLLUTION:COUNCIL OFFICIALS have said they are confident water supplies have not been contaminated by chemicals in the fertiliser urea which was used to treat some roads last weekend.
Urea is an agricultural fertiliser,contains nitrogen and ammonia and is an effective de-icer.
The compound is used only in emergencies as it costs almost five times more than salt. Because fertilisers can pollute rivers and groundwater sources, their use by farmers is regulated by legislation under the EU’s nitrates directive.
A spokesman for the Central Fisheries Board said urea contains ammonia which can cause fish kills in rivers. The board was consulted about its use and reluctantly accepted that “if there was a genuine national emergency” it would have to accept the measure.
Tech firm Intel – which employs 4,000 at its Leixlip plant and is a major water-user – said it had noticed “high readings” of impurities in the supply, especially last Monday night. The company has sent samples abroad to be tested for ammonia.
Chairman of the Emergency Co-ordination Response Committee Seán Hogan said tests were being carried out on water supplies in six areas to ensure urea had not contaminated supplies.
Mr Hogan said a decision to use the fertiliser was taken when salt supplies reached “critical” levels last week. The National Roads Authority (NRA) was advised to use urea as an alternative. “This was one of the dilemmas we faced as a committee,” he said. “Coming to the end of last week the salt supply situation became critical in this country as in other countries in Europe.”
He added: “As a committee we looked at material that would allow us to continue our objective of keeping national primary roads open. The committee asked the NRA to source and distribute urea to a small number of local authorities where salt was critically low coming into last weekend.”
Mr Hogan said some 210 tonnes of urea was mixed with other grit in six areas where salt supplies were exhausted and used to treat icy roads. These were Meath, Kildare, Carlow, south Dublin and north and south Tipperary.
He said as a precaution local authorities were monitoring for any traces of ammonia or urea in their water supplies.
On the question of contamination Minister Noel Dempsey said “nothing has been detected yet”.
However, he added that as a precaution local authorities had been told to inform the Environmental Protection Agency and HSE if traces were detected.
Charlie Talbot, a spokesman for Kildare County Council, said urea had been used “for one night only on the motorways” because “it clogged up the belts” on the gritting lorries. He said that “elevated levels of ammonia” had subsequently been discovered in the Morrell river, a tributary which joins the Liffey at Straffan. However, he added, “there was not, and is not, any threat to drinking water” or to public health.
Dan McInerney, director of roads for Carlow County Council was “perfectly satisfied” there was “no threat” because of the “very small amount” of urea used. He explained that last weekend when the council was “running out of salt” and was “feverishly looking around for an alternative”, a supplier offered a delivery of fertiliser.
The council had used “40 tonnes” to mix with grit to treat national and regional roads. He described urea as a “particularly effective” de-icer, often used “by airports around the world” but that its use was limited because of the very high cost. The council paid “around €65 per tonne for rock salt but urea was around €300 a tonne”. Its use had been “approved” by the Government.