Silage making, if not carried out in accordance with good farm practice, can entail risks to river water quality. Much work has been done in recent years to promote understanding of these risks in the farming community and to establish suitable arrangements for prevention. Local authorities and the agricultural advisory agencies have carried out extensive farm inspections. Initiatives to promote environmental awareness by a range of agencies, including farmer representative associations, have also given important assistance.
There has been substantial investment in recent years by farmers, with EU and State support, in installing and upgrading storage facilities for silage and the management of farm wastes. This is reflected in the general reduction in the number of fish kills attributed to agriculture since 1987 when the sector accounted for 85 incidents out of a total of 122. In 1995, agriculture was directly responsible for 19 fish kills, including ten caused by silage effluent, from the total of 85 recorded.
Local authorities are regularly reminded by my Department of the need for intensive efforts at pollution prevention, and extensive powers are available to them under the Local Government (Water Pollution) Acts, 1977 and 1990, for this purpose. Earlier this week, the Minister issued a statement calling for greater vigilance on the part of all concerned with the handling and disposal of wastes of different kinds to safeguard against water pollution during the sensitive summer period.