Drive to protect our local rivers
An agency established to work with farmers and other members of the community to protect rivers is involved in a number of initiatives in the Nenagh Municipal District, local councillors were told at their September meeting.
The announcement of these initiatives coincides with a warning by Independent councillor Séamie Morris that agencies involved in protecting waterways need to be extra vigilant in regard to the Ollatrim River due to the number of licensed discharge pipes from industries along the waterway.
Ruth Hennessy, Catchment Manager with the Local Authorities Water Programme (LAWRO), said her organisation is supporting community events aimed at protecting water quality in local rivers and providing funds to community groups to promote programmes to protected rivers.
An update on the situation regarding a pipe discharging into the Clareen Stream in Nenagh has been requested by Cllr Morris. He has asked council officials if the pipe has a licence to discharge into the stream, a tributary of the Nenagh River.
The pipe is located close to the old former Nenagh Ormond Rugby lands at Tyone.
Michael Moroney, senior executive officer in the council’s environment section, said he was not aware of the pipe but would have the matter investigated.
Separately, Cllr Morris said he was very surprised at the number of discharge pipes that had been granted for the section of the Ollatrim River in the townland of Ballinree and Ballymackey.
He said 12 per cent of the total of licensed discharged pipes for the entire county of Tipperary were located in the Ballymackey area.
That amounted to significant discharges into the Ollatrim River. It was important that the council ensure that there were no breaches in terms of discharges in the area.
Cllr Morris said a number of groups and individuals had approached him about how they could play a part in protecting the Nenagh River from pollution.
‘CITIZEN SCIENCE’
Ms Hennessy said LAWPO supported “citizen science” projects that involved community groups and individuals carrying out testing to access the health of rivers. If there were any people in Nenagh who would like to get involved in such an initiative, her agency would be happy to advise them.
Ms Hennessy said LAWPO was involved in several initiatives all over Tipperary to enhance rivers. One initiative involved helping to rid rivers of invasive species. In Roscrea, the agency was involved in driving an initiative to improve fish migration that was hampered by a weir.
Other initiatives involved devising nature-based solutions to stop polluted rainwater running straight from roadways into rivers and a programme aimed at farmers to come up with ways of reducing runoffs from their holdings.
Ms Hennessy said funding of €50 million had been provided nationally aimed at encouraging farmers to work on such initiatives. Co-ops such as Arrabawn as well as Teagasc were playing a part in the scheme. The aim was to get 15,000 farmers into the scheme by 2029. Currently the number of applicants was 4,000, with 300 of these farming in Tipperary.