The Detail, a non-profit investigative news outlet in Belfast, recently reported that in order to bypass environmental legislation false soil sample results were submitted for more than 100 applications for pig, poultry and cattle sheds and biogas plants – with three quarters of them being approved.
Why does this matter?
Farmers use soil samples to prove they’re not having a detrimental impact on the environment through excess animal manure.
The false samples mean authorities have been led to believe that the land involved in applications had capacity to absorb the manure from the new animal sheds.
When land is unable to absorb the excess it is known as run-off, which is responsible for severe ecological problems. Toxic algal blooms in Lough Neagh this past Summer and early Autumn were caused by slurry run-off and exacerbated by increasing temperatures due to manmade climate change.
The algal blooms contributed to ecosystem decimation in, on and around the Lough through the reduction of oxygen in the water and production of toxins. In addition, life on land is impacted with nutrient oversaturation leading to destruction of soil biomes and health, and wider damage to local ecosystems of plants and animals.
Current obstacles
Stormont departments and local councils have been slow to act, and granular investigation and repercussions have yet to be established.
This is the second time that mass falsification has been found. In 2021, some applications had fake documents claiming manure generated by animals to be housed in any new sheds would be exported to the Republic.
Finding a solution can often be a balance of incentives and punishments with some examples including:
- Implement more severe penalties for falsification of documentation and sampling
- Introduce stricter monitoring both locational on the Lough and using site visits
- Targeted subsidisation instead toward other practices, e.g. rewilding of land, organic/regenerative crop farming
- Improving infrastructure for animal waste disposal/use, particularly in use of biogas/biomass plants
However
Any of the above is dependent on functioning and sitting government…
i.e. Stormont
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