In April this year, a Longford environmentalist commented ironically in a letter to this newspaper that summer had officially arrived: "The two indisputable signs have been recorded - the call of the cuckoo and the first slurry spill of the season." A few days earlier, 20,000 gallons of slurry had leaked from a farm near Clonakilty, Co Cork, killing thousands of fish. The writer's grim implication was that the summer would inevitably see more spills, causing more mass destruction of fish and other aquatic life - and how right he was. Last weekend more than 100,000 young trout and salmon parr were wiped out when two tributaries of the River Lee were polluted by pig slurry from a company farm at
Macroom. A prosecution is to follow.
Alarmingly, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did not learn of the pollution until last Monday, though the spill occurred the previous Friday. A
director of Macroom Mills Farm Ltd, which operates the farm in question, said the company had applied for an Integrated Pollution Control Licence last April, and he was not aware that he was duty-bound to report such incidents to the EPA
until the licence was issued.
For many, this will reinforce the impression that environmental awareness is still disturbingly low in the agriculture industry. There will be widespread support for the call by Mr Aiden Barry, manager of the South Western Fisheries
Board, for an extensive education programme for farmers, especially on the overuse of phosphate fertiliser and the care of slurry pits. After all, he said,
"we are not dealing with rocket science here."
But we are, of course, dealing with money, and as Mr Barry acknowledged, too many farmers still see safeguards - such as cut-off valves or alarms - as optional extras. Intensive farming practices remain the single worst contributor to water pollution in this country. In this respect, the high level of take-up for the EU's Rural Environment Protection Scheme, which offers grants to help control fertiliser use, slurry spreading and other problems, is encouraging. (By the start of this year, 23,000 farmers had joined the scheme and £90
million had been paid out in grants.) It is true also that we have come a long way from the worst days of the late 1980s; but there is a long way to go and a lot to be learned - a recent study of soil in the Lee valley, for instance, found up to five times more phosphate fertiliser than was required for optimum growth. And Killarney's legendary lakes are currently spoiled by algae bloom from fertiliser use.
Pollution of rivers and streams by slurry and fertiliser is appalling enough in itself, but it is a part of a wider picture. We are fortunate in Ireland to live in a green, relatively unspoiled country, free from mass industrialisation.
Our comparatively pure air and water make us envied by millions of Europeans.
Our image as a green, clean, island with game fisheries, high-quality foods, pure drinking water and unspoilt open spaces is an invaluable asset for tourism.
But it is an image which, while still largely true, is constantly threatened by the grimmer realities of poorly-planned development, rising air pollution and the fouling of waterways by agriculture, industry, and, sadly, local authorities.
If we are to preserve both the reality and the image of "green Ireland", education, enforcement, and exemplary penalties are all essential.