Rural group water supplies are in danger of becoming polluted because farmers have been spreading slurry on wet land due to the bad weather.
With rainfall 20 per cent higher than normal, some farmers are being forced to empty slurry tanks which have overflowed as rain from buildings and concrete yards enters them.
Slurry stocks are at an all-time high because farmers were forced to house stock much earlier last autumn because of the poor weather.
Yesterday, a Food Safety Authority spokeswoman expressed concern at the reports. "Most urban areas draw their water supplies from protected catchment areas, where there is no danger of such activity taking place," she said.
"But we would be very concerned about possible pollution to group water schemes in rural areas which are normally serviced by wells which could become polluted," she said. She said that while there was no evidence yet that water supplies have been contaminated by the deadly E-coli 0157, other harmful E-coli and parasites are found in slurry.
She said the only way to prevent such danger to water supplies was to provide an alternative system for rainwater to prevent it getting into slurry pits and causing them to overflow.
Mr Padraic Walsh, chairman of the IFA's national dairy committee, said many dairy farmers, including himself, had installed equipment to prevent rainwater flooding slurry pits. "This equipment is very expensive but it is very necessary in order to keep rainwater and slurry separate," he said. "Pumping and other equipment is expensive." He said that even with such a system in place, the fact that cattle had to be housed so early last autumn had led to a build-up of slurry on farms.
Mr Walsh said farmers were normally advised not to spread slurry if there is going to be rainfall within 48 hours of the work being carried out. "It would be very hard to find a period last year when there were 48 hours without rain," he said.