River Shannon has been ‘raped and pillaged’ - State blamed

The toxic algal blooms on Lough Derg that turned the waters of the lake a pea-green colour in recent weeks is just symptomatic of the “rape and pillaging” of the River Shannon by the State over the past century, it was stated at the October meeting of the Nenagh Municipal District authority.

The comments were made by Cllr Michael O’ Meara who pointed out that the flooding of the Shannon Callows, close to where he lived, had put substantial amounts of farmland under water and impacted on the livelihoods of farmers.

He said the bird species, the Corncrake, that once nested in the callows in their hundreds, had disappeared and farmers’ harvests had been destroyed due to the flooding.

Cllr O’ Meara said the plan by Uisce Éireann to extract millions of gallons of water a day from the river to supply the greater Dublin and midlands areas would “really destroy” the waterway.

He said the water quality of the river had been destroyed by runoffs of “acidic” peat from Bord Na Mona-owned bogs in the Midlands.

The peat could be seen washed up close to the shores of the river itself and on Lough Derg.

“The Shannon has been destroyed by the State,” he said.

Cllr Séamie Morris said the plan to extract huge amounts of water from the river to supply Dublin would destroy the ecology of the lake.

“I am trying to put a multi-agency team together to try to stop this project,” he said.

NUTRIENTS

Cllr Morris said there were a lot of nutrients getting into the river that were sparking the algal blooms, including “massive slurry” being spread on lands.

“Anglers and boat owners tell me that Lough Derg is in a poor state.”

Cllr John Carroll agreed that all stakeholders responsible for the river and lake needed to meet to look at ways to stop the destruction of the waterways.

Cllr O’ Meara criticised the fact that Lough Derg and sections of the River Shannon flowing through North Tipperary had not benefited from the €130 million Just Transition Fund, aimed at helping communities depending on the peat production in the Midlands to move to a climate neutral economy.

Yet the sections of the Shannon that flowed through Tipperary were destroyed by environmental issues due to the harvesting of bogs.

FAIRNESS FOR FARMERS

Cllr O’ Meara said farmers had taken the blame for many of the problems with water quality.

But farmers did a huge amount to protect the river and lake and were always willing to work with the authorities in protecting the Shannon, if given a chance.

Cllr Morris said that some parts of Tipperary were in real trouble when it came to water quality.

Rivers such as the Suir, the Nenagh, the Ollatrim and Lough Derg itself had been badly impacted by pollution.

treatment

The treatment process in taking the impurities out the water for public water supply purposes resulted in levels of Trihalomethanes (THMs) that in some cases were 50 per cent above EU guidelines.

He said some studies suggest a possible link between very long-term exposure to high levels of THMs and a slightly increased risk of certain cancers.

Cllr Pamela Quirke O' Meara said she was very concerned about the water quality in Lough Derg and felt attitudes to the problem in Ireland had been underlined when no State agency involved in the recent kill of up to 46,000 in the River Blackwater in Cork could come up with a reason for the massive kill.