Transition Monaghan are involved in a Water Quality awareness video project on Monaghan water quality. The project is led by Siolta Chroi, supported by Transition Monaghan and funded by LAWPRO). At this stage in late 2021, a lot of the footage has been taken and a few interviews have been done. There are a few more interviews to do before the footage can be edited to make the final video. 

Basically, the aim is to highlight the significant pollution issues at Lough Muckno and Lough NaGlack (outside Carrick), as they are some of the worst polluted lakes in the country according to the EPA’s last major report (Monaghan and Cavan had several of the worst performing lakes in the country). The video will be shown at a community event in Blayney in 2022.

This video project will feed into another project, run by Muckno Community Projects (also LAWPRO funded), which aims to do a more technical study of the lake and its catchment area. Jennifer McAree (of Transition Monaghan) has been working on this with Alan Sullivan from Rivus Ltd. They have also been in contact with Monaghan Co Co about these projects. 

The Council are actually conducting studies of the lake themselves (which includes historical core sampling). Their renewed focus is probably due to the fact that potable water is extracted from the south end of Lough Muckno for part of Dundalk! There’s still a bit to do, but hopefully this gives a general overview for the moment! As soon as the video is available it will be published here!