Pesticides persistently found in two local water supplies

While some parts of County Cavan have endured pesticide exceedances in their water supply for over two years, the problem can be solved swiftly by those affected communities, assures a senior Irish Water figure. There were no exceedances reported in County Monaghan for the period concerned.
There’s only six water schemes nationally on a remedial action list compiled by National Pesticides Drinking Water Action Group (NPDWAG) due to the persistence of the problem of pesticide levels exceeding legal limits - and two of those areas are in County Cavan.
Cavan Regional Water Supply, which comes from Lough Acanon, is currently on the action list having had had exceedances for MCPA in October and November 2019.
Belturbet Water Supply, which comes from the River Erne, had exceedances for MCPA from May to September 2019 and is also on the EPA action list.
Meanwhile Ballyjamesduff is on a separate watch list, comprising over 20 supplies nationally. There are attempts to address these supplies to prevent them from becoming persistent pesticide exceedances. Ballyjamesduff had exceedances for July, October and November 2019.
That means a total of 17,352 Cavan people have, at some stage, been drinking and bathing in water contaminated by pesticides in the last year. It should be stressed that there is no public health implication, given the levels at which the exceedances have occurred, however all of these areas are being prioritised for action by NPDWAG members. A sub-group to help focus on the problem in County Cavan has also been established recently.
According to the Drinking Water Regulations, the safe limit for MCPA is 0.1 micrograms/litre or less - to visualise the levels that could equate to an exceedance, the example is often given of one drop in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. In Cavan Town the water supply had almost four times the legal limit at 0.37 on a sample tested in October 2019; that same month Ballyjamesduff returned a sample that was nearly three times the legal limit (0.29); while in September 2019 Belturbet returned a sample that was exactly double the legal limit (0.2). 

Undesirable
Efforts to reduce exceedanes are being coordinated by the NPDWAG, which is chaired by the Department of Agriculture. All of the key stakeholders are represented in this group and include other Government departments and agencies, including Irish Water; local authorities; industry representative bodies (the companies making pesticides); farming organisations; water sector organisations; and amenity sector organisations. 
Speaking to The Anglo-Celt, Pat O’Sullivan, Irish Water’s Regional Drinking Water Compliance Specialist gave assurance that the exceedance in terms of MCPA would need to be 700 times the exceedance limit before it would pose a hazard to public health.

“It’s extremely potent and you can understand why the Drinking Regulations were set up that way,” he says, alluding to the minuscule legal limit permitted.
“It’s a synthetic man-made compound and it’s clearly undesirable in terms of the wholesomeness of water. For us, as a utility, we’re tasked with supplying 100% compliant water - simple as that.”
However, Irish Water have no remit to approach the public living in those catchments in tackling the problem - that’s where their partners in the NPDWAG, such as Cavan County Council, LawPro, Teagasc in pushing the message about reduced and proper application of pesticides.

 

Sources
Pesticides can get into drinking water through misuse, or careless handling of containers during storage or disposal. The problem could potentially come from any number of sources, such as groundskeepers, homeowners, farmers, foresters and transport authorities attempting to keep roadsides verges clear. MCPA is frequently used by farmers to treat rushes. Advice is available for farmers on their options in terms of suppressing or containing rushes, but there is no obligation to apply pesticides in order to protect against penalties to their Basic Payment Scheme (More information on this can be obtained from farm advisors or on www.pcs.agriculture.gov.ie/sud/waterprotection).
“I think we have run into a lot of confusion in terms that farmers felt that they had to spray and had to keep rushes at bay,” explained Pat.
“We’re glad now that we have clear advice from the Department that they don’t.”
So given that clear advice, the Celt wonders why not ban use of MCPA?
Pat replies that Irish Water have no control over that, or remit to make that call.
“I know that there have been discussions at a high level within the Department and EPA looking at the whole issue of banning. The problem there is that if you ban one product that it doesn’t get replaced with a product that’s more harmful or that could actually have more real health effects in that the tolerance limit could be a lot lower.
“Equally, if you ban it in the Republic, does it mean that whoever wants to use just has to cross the border and buy it in a hardware shop there? There’s a lot to be considered here by the Department, by the government, by our regulators - but they haven’t ruled it out.” 

Solve this problem
People residing or working in Cavan Town, Belturbet or Ballyjamesduff aren’t presented with Pat’s two glass scenario - they can only drink from the glass of water containing pesticide. And this is what they are drinking every day - what does Pat say to those people?
“That is the case. Where we do get exceedances we publish them on our website, we consult with the HSE in terms of any health impacts and while there is no health concerns, it is clearly undesirable. If they are concerned about it, then they as a community living in those catchments can solve this problem very very quickly.”
That positive note isn’t just wishful thinking. Three water supply schemes in County Cavan which had MCPA exceedances - Killeshandra, Gowna and Arvagh - were closed out in 2019. That means that there has been exceedances detected in the monthly samples for a full year. Does he believe that we will ever have a time when County Cavan report any exceedances. 
“I absolutely do because we have had great success in other counties - we’ve had huge successes in Mayo where we have brought the open investigative files from six down to one. Even Cavan, it currently has three open files - but that’s down from six.
“There has been an awful lot of progress here and the number of files nationally has been steadily reducing so the message is obviously getting out there and I suppose it’s the final push to get Cavan over the line.”