SUAS Water Quality (Summary)

Water Quality Monitoring

Small headwater streams are a significant habitat resource and play an important role capturing and regulating the flow of water to rivers downstream. These headwaters support a myriad of species but they are vulnerable to pollution and can influence water quality further downstream. Many streams in the Wicklow and Dublin Uplands will also eventually flow into reservoirs that in turn provide drinking water to North County Wicklow and Dublin, e.g. the Poulaphouca, Vartry and Bohernabreena Reservoirs. It is therefore vital to protect and maintain water quality in these headwaters, and healthy habitats support better water quality.

The SUAS Project was keen to monitor water quality across participating sites. The purpose –

  1. To establish a baseline of water quality before any actions were carried out
  2. To identify any pressures that could be addressed by habitat management actions
  3. Follow up monitoring to determine if the habitat management actions had an effect on water quality in the surrounding streams.

Aquatic macroinvertebrate monitoring was conducted across ten SUAS sites at twenty-nine unique sample locations in 2019/2020 and this was repeated in 2022. The samples were assessed according to the Small Streams Risk Score (SSRS). The SSRS is a biological risk assessment system for identifying rivers that are definitely ‘at risk’ of failing to achieve the ‘good’ water quality status goals of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The presence or absence of specific groups of macroinvertebrates and their relative abundance determines the risk category. The categories are:

  • Probably not at risk
  • Intermediate (Steam may be at risk)
  • Stream at risk

Of the twenty-nine locations sampled most remained unchanged (18) or improved (8) with two locations disimproving. Of the two locations disimproving, low water levels at the time of resampling was found to be an issue at one, and possible nutrient enrichment was suggested as the reason at the second. The 2022 monitoring included a suite of chemical analyses to give a broader understanding of any issues that might arise

The water quality monitoring determined that, in general, the ecological health of the streams monitored on six of the SUAS sites had improved and the remaining four sites remained unchanged.

SCREENING FOR APPROPRIATE ASSESSMENTS: Integrated Constructed Wetlands at sites in Donegal.

Construction of three Integrated Constructed Wetlands (ICW’s) at three locations in Co. Donegal for the treatment of spent sheep dip effluent from three publicly used sheep dipping facilities.

Integrated Constructed Wetlands at a site at Ballykerrigan,Co Donegal.

Integrated Constructed Wetland at a site near Lough Muck, Co Donegal

Irish National Parks overlaid with Commonage

Wicklow

Burren

Connemara

Glenveagh

Killarney

Wild Nephin

Commonage / Non Commanage Uplands – Management Plans (Wicklow)

https://www.teagasc.ie/news–events/daily/sheep/suas-sustainable-uplands-agri-environment-scheme.php

https://wicklowuplands.ie/suasproject/suas-documents/

Total of seven commonages and three non-commonage upland farmers are currently participating in SUAS

Powercourt Paddock (non commonage)

The commonage is located within the Eastern River Basin District within the Ovoca-Vartry catchment (10) and includes two sub-catchments – the Dargle Sub Catchment (Dargle_SC_010) and the Vartry Sub Catchment (Vartry_SC_010)

Glassavullaun Commonage

The commonage is located within the Eastern River Basin District within the Liffey and Dublin Bay catchment (09) and the Dodder Sub-catchment (SC010).

Ballynultagh (non commonage)

The commonage is located within the Eastern River Basin District within the Liffey and Dublin Bay catchment (09) and the Liffey Sub-catchment (SC010).

Kilmashogue Upland Farm (non commonage)

Corrasillagh Commonage

Slievemweel Commonage

The Slievemweel Stream, which is a tributary of the Coolballintaggart Stream rises within the commonage on the northern boundary of the commonage adjoining a forestry plantation. This stream flows south eastwards to join the Coolballintaggart Stream. The Askanagap Stream rises on the south-western side of the commonage. The Coolballintaggart Stream joins the Askanagap Stream (which is a tributary of the Derry Water) to the south east of the commonage. This tributary of the
Derry Water River then joins the main channel of the Derry Water, which flows north easterly towards Aughrim Village.

Carrigeenduff Commonage

A number of watercourses rise within the commonage on the ridge between Duff Hill and Mullaghcleevaun East Top. These are from north to south – Lavarnia Brook, two tributaries of the Cornagrainya Brook and Cywock Brook. These watercourses are all tributaries of the Inchavore River, which flows into Lough Dan. The Inchavore Brook and Duff Brook rise on the slopes of
Kanturk Mountain and also flow into Lough Dan.

Granamore Commonage

Ballybeg Commonage

The commonage is located within the Eastern River Basin District within the Ovoca-Vartry catchment (10) and the DerryWater Sub Catchment (10). A tributary of the Ballycumber South Stream (IE_EA_10D020600 Ballycumber South) rises within the
commonage on the north-western boundary of the commonage adjoining a forestry plantation and flows north eastwards to join a tributary of the Derry Water, which is then joined by the Askanagap Stream, upstream of Ballinglen Bridge. This tributary of the Derry Water River then joins the main channel of the Derry Water, which flows north easterly towards Aughrim Village.

Glasnamullen

The Glasnamullen Stream (also known locally as Barrack River) rises within the site almost bisecting the commonage and a smaller watercourse (known locally as the Ballinastoe Stream) is found along the southern boundary of the commonage where it adjoins the Ballinastoe Woods, which are owned by Coillte. Both of these watercourses are tributaries of the Vartry River, which feeds the Vartry Reservoir and as such form part of the drinking water supply for North County Wicklow and Dublin.

Sheep Dip

The Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Environment are to establish a “forum on the management of spent sheep dip”, as recommended by the EPA

Spent sheep dip has been identified by the EPA as having “significant toxic impacts” on river ecosystems in areas where the practice of dipping is widespread.

Donegal had been mentioned in the report as one such area where the disposal of used dip and sheep footbath solutions required improvement.

The EPA had advised that the relevant departments commence discussions by the end of March (2022) on the sheep dip forum

Source: Farmers Journal

Temporal land use patterns and livestock numbers (sheep) across several river catchments

Temporal land use patterns and livestock numbers across several river catchments. Within DAFM the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) division generated a list of herds who had land in each river catchment area for a select number of river catchments from 2014-2020. The departments Animal Identification & Movement (AIM) division provided the bovine and ovine figures for each herd in each year.

It should be noted that the AIM data was generated for herds who had land in each river catchment area. It is likely that some herds also had land outside the river catchment areas. In total AIM were supplied with 26,002 herds to report on across each location and year. 2,198 of these herds were not included in the final dataset because they either did not have cattle in the period, or did not have sheep census returns in the period (or both).

https://data.gov.ie/dataset/temporal-land-use-patterns-and-livestock-numbers-sheep-across-several-river-catchments?package_type=dataset

Note:

This dataset is interesting as it is published by Catchment (not County or ED), which makes it useful for water quality purposes. So I asked the Open Data Officer in DAFM why this is the case. Response is as follows:

We received a specific request looking for land use patterns and livestock numbers across several river catchments and how these may have changed over time as part of the Climate Change Mitigation Research Programme | CCMRP | Inland Fisheries Ireland project. As part of the request, we were provided a shapefile by the requester for each river catchment area they required data for. LPIS generated lists of herds who had land in each river catchment area for each year. AIM provided the bovine and ovine figures for each herd in each year.