ICMSA hits out at the ‘jaw dropping’ sewage hypocrisy
ICMSA president Pat McCormack has described as “jaw-dropping” the media reports of the EPA identifying 26 towns and villages that are not connected at all to any wastewater treatment with raw sewage volumes equal to 54,000 people pumped daily into waterways.
Raw sewage continues to be discharged straight into the Shannon Estuary in Foynes and Glin.
New wastewater treatment plants and sewerage infrastructure are planned for both villages.
Mr McCormack said that it is worth pointing out that any single farmer in Ireland would find himself in court “for even one instance of such gross negligence – much less an ongoing daily basis”.
The farmer leader noted that, “Yet again we were being treated to the sight of numerous official agencies and councils failing abjectly to carry out tasks that those very same agencies and councils were actually prosecuting farmers and other individuals for on grounds of alleged non-compliance”.
It was way “beyond ordinary hypocrisy and represented a double-standard that was so jaw-dropping it was nearly in a class of its own” said Mr McCormack.
“Every farmer in Ireland is aware – often painfully so – of their obligations to prevent discharges like this into their local rivers and waterways. Imagine the kind of stress that farmers in east Cork have been experiencing over the last week when their slurry storage was flooded, and they could have found themselves liable for run-offs into local waterways.
“In fairness to Minister Charlie McConalogue, he clarified that situation.
“But then we have reports that show two decent sized towns in east Cork – Ballycotton and Whitegate - where raw sewage is being discharged without any treatment whatsoever. Farmers have had just about enough of this kind of nonsense and gross hypocrisy and our blunt message to the Irish State on this is ‘Physician, heal thyself!’”
Mr McCormack continued: “Stop presuming to lecture farmers on damaging waterways until you’ve stopped blatantly pumping untreated sewage into them all over the country without let, hindrance or even an expression of regret.”
“Put bluntly: if you won’t obey your own regulations then stop lecturing farmers – or indeed anyone else - on why we have to obey them!” said an exasperated ICMSA president.
He said that farmers are investing on a daily basis in environmental measures and are expected to implement measures with minimum notice.
“Meanwhile, the Government is happy to give its own lavishly resourced agencies up to 20 years to resolve their issues.
“Farm families are being wiped out through costly environmental measures while the State protects its own agencies from any censure or repercussion. We can’t go on having these two very different standards of compliance,” he concluded.
The Sustainable Water Network (SWAN) has called on Uisce Éireann to “use its new investment plan to end pollution of our rivers and coastal waters from wastewater”.