Local authorities need to carry out more farm inspections and follow-up enforcement is needed to reduce the risk of agricultural activities negatively impacting on water quality, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report has found.

“While the number of local authority farm inspections increased during 2022, the number is still too low.

“More farm inspections and follow-up enforcement is needed to reduce the risk of agricultural activities negatively impacting on water quality and to drive compliance with the good agricultural practice (GAP) regulations,” the EPA report on the environmental enforcement performance of local authorities in 2022 found.

Risk-based approach

“The national agricultural inspection programme, which commenced in 2022, sets out a risk-based approach to the targeting of inspections using the EPA’s targeting agricultural measures map.

"A priority for this winter (2023/2024) is that local authorities monitor that there is no spreading of soiled water, slurry or fertiliser on farmlands in the closed season or under unsuitable weather or soil conditions,” it added.

Overall, water quality is not good enough, with just over half of rivers, lakes, estuaries and coastal waters in satisfactory condition, the EPA said.

“Agriculture continues to have a significant impact on water quality, causing excess levels of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) to enter our waterways,” it added.

Inspections

The EPA report acknowledged that local authorities play a vital role in protecting the environment and they carried out over 197,000 environmental inspections in 2022.

However, it said many key environmental indicators are static or trending in the wrong direction.

Along with increased farm inspections, the report found that greater enforcement is needed by local authorities to ensure failed septic tank systems are fixed.

In the waste sector, it said there are challenging recycling targets that need to be met and that localised air pollution issues continue to have a negative impact on people’s health.