Lady’s Island lagoon in Wexford is so polluted that it would take “millions of euro” to restore it, a study for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found.
As The Sunday Independent reports, Ireland could face EU fines over the state of the lagoon, as it is a priority area under the EU Habitats Directive.
Nutrient levels would have to reduce by over 85 per cent to return Lady’s Island lake to its state in the 1980s, the study by Aquafact Consultancy, says.
Lady’s Island Lake is a saline lagoon which is also a pilgrimage site in Co Wexford, extending over 300 hectares.
The cause of eutrophication is identified as over-enrichment, mainly from agriculture.
This has resulted in harmful algal blooms and fish kills, and so little oxygen that few species can survive, the paper’s main authors, Dr Brendan O’Connor, Dr Cilian Roden and Geoff Oliver say.
Aquafact Consultancy was commissioned to undertake the study as part of the Coastal Lagoons: Ecology and Restoration (CLEAR) research programme, and its status was compared with another saline lagoon, Ballyteigue Channels.
The scientists say they were fortunate to have access to a baseline study undertaken in 1977 by then fourth year marine biology student Dick Bates, who subsequently worked for Bord Iascaigh Mhara and the European Commission.
The results of the new study show that a “five to seven-fold reduction in nitrogen and phosphorus inputs to Lady’s Island Lake will be necessary to return the lagoon to its previous condition,”the authors state.
They suggest that some amelioration may be possible by protecting the lake shoreline with tree planting, the use of artificial wetlands and the removal of nutrient rich sediments.
Read The Sunday Independent here
