Category Archives: Water

Sustainability Matters

Posted on by
Reply

Irish Water Quality Under Pressure Tydavnet GWS showcase Knocknagrave

Algal Blooms In Irish Lakes: The quality of waterways across Ireland has dropped over the decades and this summer has seen a raft of freshwater lakes closed to bathing due to algal blooms: the algae can cause serious sickness in humans. A combination of domestic, agricultural and industrial effluent has combined to increase nutrient levels in our lakes leading to the blooms of blue/green algae. In August 2023 Monaghan Co Co reported poor water quality in two well-visited bathing lakes as testing showed high levels of E. coli in both Lough Muckno (Blayney) and in Creevy Lake (Carrickmacross). Up-to-date testing results are available at https://monaghan.ie/environment/bathing-waters/ The picture above is particularly apt in this context and it pulls no punches in portraying how humans coevolved with nature but now threaten its very survival. Thankfully we can take many simple steps to reduce our impacts on nature and our waterways and hence make our drinking water better.

Continue reading →

Crumb Rubber

Posted on by
Reply

…a crumbled tyre is still a tyre and remains toxic, regardless of where you put it…

What is crumb rubber? Crumb rubber is made from recycled tyres – they are quite literally ground up into crumbs. These rubber crumbs are then used for a number of purposes including as the infill in artificial turf systems for sports fields. Artificial or synthetic turf has been used since the 1960s – older fields were generally comprised of hard mats of nylon grass and many athletes using these fields complained that the surface was harder than grass and caused more injuries. Newer synthetic turf fields were developed to simulate natural grass fields by using infill material to make the fields softer and by adding plastic grass on the surface. Increasingly, the infill material of choice is crumb rubber, and it can be found in the playing fields of many schools and GAA football pitches across Ireland. A FIFA report in 2017 found that in the period from 2006 to the completion of the report, 3,437 pitches had been certified with the world governing body in 149 countries. [Sam Wallace, http://www.pitchcare.com]

Continue reading →

TM trip to Lough Muckno March 2022

Posted on by
Reply

Members of Transition Monaghan took a trip to Lough Muckno to hear from “Friends of Lough Muckno” who shared their concerns about Monaghan County Councils Vision for developing the area. The Vision created by external consultants would result in a huge impact on the landscape and risk damage to already weakened habitats and water quality.

A proposed enormous development threatens biodiversity at Lough Muckno
Liam Murtagh addresses the group and explaining the likely impacts of the “Vision”
Continue reading →

River Basin Management Plan for Ireland

Posted on by
Reply

CURRENTLY OPEN FOR PUBLIC CONSULTATION – HAVE YOUR SAY!

Ireland’s third River Basin Management Plan is currently under development and is open for public consultation. River Basin Management Plans are pivotal tools for the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive. The Water Framework Directive is European legislation that requires our rivers, lakes, groundwater and coastal water to achieve a healthy state, or what’s known as ‘good ecological status’. Ireland’s first RBMP was published in 2009, the second was published in 2018, and the third RBMP due to cover the period 2022-2027 is in the process of being finalised. But what does all of this mean?

Continue reading →