Lough Neagh crisis will become ‘common experience’ without action, MLAs warned

The environmental crisis at Lough Neagh will become a “common experience” across Northern Ireland if nutrient pollution is not addressed, MLAs have been told.

Dame Glenys Stacey, chairwoman of the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP), told a Stormont committee that excess nutrients from farming and from sewage were the main forms of pollution in the region.

The Committee for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs was told that Lough Neagh is a “big red flag” of what will happen elsewhere if action is not taken.

It was recently confirmed that blue-green algae has returned to the lough for the third successive year.

Noxious blooms of the algae covered large parts of the lough, the UK’s largest freshwater lake by surface area, during the previous two summers and also affected other waterways and beaches in the region.

Dame Glenys told the committee that the OEP’s role was to hold Government to account for its environmental commitments in England and Northern Ireland.

She said there had been good co-operation with its work in Northern Ireland.

She told the committee: “Since we started there is a growing expectation amongst stakeholders and the public that action will be taken to protect and improve the environment.

“Interest is growing. I think the issues seen at Lough Neagh have brought the wider environmental issues and challenges into sharp focus.

“We know there is much to be done to protect the environment here for the future and for this generation so we can make sure that nature can thrive as it must to support a healthy economy and society.

“We would argue that Lough Neagh is a big red flag, an indicator of what can and indeed will happen elsewhere if things don’t materially change.”

Dame Glenys said the OEP had undertaken a number of investigations in Northern Ireland and published four reports.

She said: “Just to summarise the common threads from those reports, there are unsustainable pressures on the environment.

“Ineffective implementation of environmental laws we find commonly, governance that is weak and has failed to address the substantive issues here and delays in putting in place vital plans.”

She said the issue the OEP kept coming back to in Northern Ireland was pollution from nutrients.

She said: “Our report on drivers and pressures really identified what is affecting nature here in Northern Ireland. Two principle pressures causing diversity loss – land use change and pollution.

“Excess nutrients from farming and from sewage are the main forms of pollution having an impact here.”

She said the OEP had now commissioned an evaluation of the wastewater system and its impact on protected sites.

She added: “Nutrient pollution must be addressed if nature is to thrive here.

“It is not a maybe, it must be addressed.

“It won’t be easy and it will need cross-government effort and leadership and buy-in from many in the community as well.

“But if it isn’t done then the types of issues we are seeing at Lough Neagh will become common experiences across many more sites.”

Lough Neagh supplies 40% of Northern Ireland’s drinking water and sustains a major eel-fishing industry.

Nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural fertiliser running off fields and from wastewater treatment is a 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, stimulating more algal photosynthesis.

Climate change is another factor as water temperatures rise.

The Stormont Executive last year launched an action plan to deal with the environmental crisis at the lough.