Sir, - Kevin O'Sullivan's article (May 20th) on the unrelenting decline in water quality makes sad reading indeed. Despite all the huffing and puffing by Government and industry, we are worse off than we ever were. Fish kills, like murders and road traffic accidents, make banner headlines. And, as with the accidents and the murders, somebody is "following a definite line of inquiry" pursuant to the event.
To what end? To confirm what we already know? That there are maverick farmers who think nothing of pulling the plug when rain is forecast and a freshet in their local stream will carry away their sins and leave them whiter than white; that there are slurry pits busting at the seams hovering ominously above a precious watercourse; that silage pits strategically located to ensure drainage are the sword of Damocles to a body of freshwater hitherto the favourite recreation of anglers young and old; that "what the hell" if all the life is gone, then there is no longer any embarrassing indicator that all is not well - indeed that all is far from well; that we can pollute and be dammed from overloaded sewage treatment plants or fault septic tanks or industrial plant or farmyard out-fall; that where everyone is responsible no-one is responsible; that the piece of paper called a "discharge licence" is the carte blanche to blurring the edges and to unlogged excesses; that seriously excessive amounts of pig slurry are being dumped on fields in the guise of spreading; that some lands made available by accommodating farmers for spreading of slurry as a condition of planning permission for an intensive pig unit have been switched to forestry and that planning authorities do not want to know; that the screamingly vulnerable alevins (day-old fish) whose parents have survived predation and migration to the spawning beds are caught in a chemical maelstrom and, in their millions, float downstream, dead and disintegrating like melting flakes of snow, the victims of man's cupidity; that all is quiet now, very quiet, and what survives is the stench and the putrefaction and the ominous aquatic vacuum where nothing lives.
Then there's eutrophication, the insidious cancer of our still waters, the causative factor of which is, beyond doubt, phosphates - their excessive and irresponsible overuse and the inevitable leachate blighting our precious freshwaters. In fairness, it is only a very small minority of farmers who are guilty. Their actions are pulling down those farmers whose responsible attitude, as demonstrated, for example in the REPS scheme, have resulted in holding the line on phosphates and, in many cases, reversing a downward trend.
When will those responsible for running our agricultural business convince constituent farmers, from Lough Erne and Lough Sheelin to Lough Conn and Killarney that the overspreading of phosphates is a waste of money and that those farmers who act irresponsibly are destroying our waters and our clean image and seriously damaging our tourist-friendly reputation? - Yours, etc., Patrick F. Byrne,
Hon secretary, National Anglers' Representative Association (Game Anglers), Newbridge, Co Kildare.