Environment department sent legal letters over Lough Neagh ‘failure’

The Department of Environment bas been sent legal letters seeking a potential judicial review for failing to publish the Environmental Improvement Plan and failing to take action against those polluting Lough Neagh.

Solicitors for Leo Brooks, an environmental activist, sent two pre-action letters in contemplation of potential judicial review proceedings against the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).

Noxious blooms of blue-green algae covered large parts of the lough last summer and also affected other waterways and beaches in the region.

The algae returned this summer.

The UK and Ireland’s largest freshwater lake provides more than 40% of Northern Ireland’s drinking water and supports Europe’s largest commercial eel fishery.

It also drains around 40% of Northern Ireland’s land, of which three-quarters is agricultural.

Nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural fertiliser running off fields is believed to be a major contributory factor in the blue-green algae blooms.

The spread of the invasive zebra mussel species is also understood to have played a role in the blooms, as they have made the water clearer, allowing more sunlight to penetrate and stimulating more algal photosynthesis.

Climate change is another factor cited.

In July, Stormont’s Environment minister Andrew Muir secured Stormont Executive approval for a 37-point action plan for Lough Neagh.

In the pre-action letter, issued on Friday, solicitors raised the statutory obligation under the Environment Act 2021, which requires DAERA to prepare an EIP setting out the steps the Northern Ireland Executive intends to take to improve the natural environment.

A statement issued by the firm, Harte Coyle Collins Solicitors, stated that the EIP is “fundamental to tackling the ongoing ecological crisis at Lough Neagh as was recognised by the DAERA Minister Andrew Muir MLA in March of this year”.

The statutory obligation to produce the EIP arising from the 2021 Act came into force on 25th July 2023.

In the second pre-action letter, issued on Tuesday, Mr Brooks alleges that Stormont has failed to use the enforcement methods currently available to take meaningful action against those who are polluting Lough Neagh and the feeder rivers.

“The letter sets out the enforcement mechanisms which are available, provides the statistics on the low level of enforcement measures used to date and notes the Executive’s silence on the issue of changes to the cap on subsidy reduction for farmers found responsible for pollution,” it added.

Mr Brooks has requested responses to both letters from Mr Muir within 21 days.

Subject to the minister’s response, he will then consider the merits of court action.

Cathal Mullan, trainee lawyer at Harte Coyle Collins, said: “If the past is a good predictor of the future, then Stormont’s commitment to tackling the ecological crisis at Lough Neagh is seriously in question.

“Almost 25 years ago, Professor of Environmental Law Sharon Turner stated in an academic article that ‘continued tolerance of comparatively lax regulation will also ensure that Northern Ireland rapidly emerges as a pollution haven’.

“Professor Turner’s warning is now a reality.

“The ecological crisis at Lough Neagh and our Government’s failure to regulate those polluting our waterways, has left our client no option but to issue pre-action correspondence to DAERA challenging its failure to effectively investigate and enforce the laws designed to protect Lough Neagh.

“Mr Brooks has called on DAERA and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency to take their share of the responsibility in allowing Northern Ireland to be known as the dirty corner of Europe through decades of light touch regulation and accept that business-as-usual just won’t cut it anymore.”