I share the Deputy's concerns about pollution in our inland waterways. Primary responsibility to prevent pollution incidents rests with those engaged in activities that could entail a pollution risk. However, local authorities, as statutory pollution control authorities, have a key role in protecting water resources. The Environmental Protection Agency is also responsible both in so far as activities licensable by the agency are concerned and as part of its overall responsibility for the preparation and implementation of environmental monitoring programmes and the establishment and maintenance of databases of information related to the environment. Extensive statutory powers are available under the Water Pollution Acts, 1977 and 1990 and the Environmental Protection Agency Act, 1992, to support these bodies in their roles.
In view of my concern about the number and impact of pollution incidents during the summer of 1997, I wrote to local authorities in August 1997 urging them to intensify their efforts to identify potential pollution sources and to take appropriate follow-up action to eliminate the risks involved. The measures I outlined then continue to provide a firm basis for effective action to minimise damage from pollution. Local authorities were particularly asked to ensure that industrial effluent discharge licence conditions, operational practices and material-waste storage facilities are adequate to safeguard water resources. In relation to agriculture, I asked the authorities to pursue a programme of visits to farms and intensive production units and to give special attention to the management of animal slurries, silage effluent and sheep dip facilities, including disposal arrangements. I also emphasised the need to ensure that water and sewage treatment plants are maintained and operated to design specification to prevent pollution.
I have repeatedly urged local authorities to use the statutory provisions available to them to recover costs associated with the prosecution of offenders, including the cost of measures to mitigate or remedy the damage done; these provisions offer a mechanism to offset the effects of pollution and augment the deterrent value of penalties by the courts in line with the "polluter pays" principle.
Alongside my immediate concern to ensure that every effort is made to minimise the risk of pollution incidents, a broadly based and comprehensive strategy is in place to address the increasing levels of eutrophication in rivers and lakes. This strategy incorporates a wide range of measures to tackle phosphorus inputs to waters from sewage, industry and agriculture. In implementing its terms, local authorities have been urged to adopt an integrated catchment based approach to the development and implementation of their pollution control policies.