Successive governments and their various agencies have been mealy mouthed and tentative in responding to the gradual degradation of our environment and the pollution of air and water by industrial, agricultural and local authority interests. In that context, yesterday's decision by the Environment Protection Agency to institute legal proceedings against Procter & Gamble, the US owned multinational cosmetics manufacturer, for polluting the water supply to the town of Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, is to be welcomed. It follows two successful prosecutions - the first ever taken by the agency in its three years of existence - for air pollution through the use of unlicensed hospital incinerators.
A report by the EPA on the pollution of the Gortlandroe Well in Nenagh described it as "one of the most serious incidents of pollution of a public water supply source in recent years". And well it might. For the past month, visitors and the 5,000 citizens of this town have been dependent for their drinking water on a twice daily supply through bulk tankers. The quality of the tap water is such that it cannot be used for many purposes. And the citizens, along with local businesses, have suffered inconvenience and loss.
Procter & Gamble is being held responsible for pollution through "unauthorised discharges to groundwater". But others are also implicated. The EPA report found the Gortlandroe Well was contaminated by effluent from the Tubex factory and from the SFADCo foul drain on the local industrial estate, which contained industrial effluent and sewage. But, because it was outside its area of competence, it recommended that Nenagh UDC should consider taking legal proceedings against the industrial development company, SFADCo, and Tubex Ltd. The local authority itself may not be blameless. The EPA notes that the Nenagh UDC sewer is "within the zone of contribution to the well" and asks that its structural integrity should be tasted and that it should now take steps to licence these discharges.
The people of Nenagh were not alone in having to depend on bulk tanker supplies of water this summer. Citizens and visitors in Roundstone, County Galway, were similarly afflicted when agricultural pollution made the local water supply undrinkable. It is not the kind of image we wish to project, either as an supplier of agriproduce or as a high quality tourist destination. In the past six years, the number of tourists has risen from 1.7 million to 4.6 million.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, last night supported the EPA on its far reaching recommendation that all local authorities should now carry out a risk assessment on all groundwater sources used for public water supply. Those close to industrial estates would be given priority. But there was a hint of complacency in his approach. He promised a long term solution for Nenagh's water supply problems through the completion of an £11.5m regional water scheme on the shores of Lough Derg. The new scheme would have "a state of the art water treatment plant" the Minister promised. It will certainly need it. Reports from Lough Derg and the River Shannon this summer have recorded toxic algae blooms, fish kills, worsening phosphate pollution from intensive farming and increasing eutrofication. The problems caused by water pollution run far deeper than the simple installation of treatment plants. If the EPA succeeds in confronting overlapping Government Departments and agencies with their responsibilites in these matters, it will have done the State a signal service.