Presentation to Environmental Protection Agency July2014 · Presentation to Environmental...
Transcript of Presentation to Environmental Protection Agency July2014 · Presentation to Environmental...
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Presentation to Environmental Protection Agency
NATIONAL WATER EVENT 2nd July2014 Fran Igoe, IRD DuhallowLIFE
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Overview of presentation
•IRD Duhallow – a Rural Development Company
•LIFE+ Project and actions
•Community engagement
•The big picture
•Integrated Catchment Management
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Rural Development Model lends itself to public engagement
- continuous contact with the local community
-Food delivery service to elderly
-Education and learning supports
-Focus groups and workshops
-Supports for affected groups (e.g. bereavement, alcohol,
suicide etc)
-Significant voluntary involvement
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IRD Duhallow LIFE+ project: Restoration of the Upper River Blackwater SAC for the Freshwater Pearl Mussel, Atlantic Salmon, European Otter and Kingfisher
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Project budget: €1.9m (£1.6m)
Duration: 4 years
Project promoters:
IRD Duhallow
Inland Fisheries Ireland
IRD DuhallowLIFE+ project target area (Natura 2000 site)
On the ground
restoration works
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Main issues affecting SAC
Erosion of river banks
Loss of riparian habitat
Soil loss due to land drainage
Siltation of fish spawning beds and pearl mussel habitat
Spread of non-native invasive plants along the river banks
Loss of habitat to range of threatened species
Siltation of fish spawning beds
Siltation of Freshwater Pearl
Mussel Habitat
Invasive alien plant species
Note project did not set out to tackle nutrient enrichment
directly-WFD/Nitrates Directive
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29 Project actions in total
Action 4 River Bank Erosion
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Bank revetment Soft engineering approach
1.Limited rock at base
2.Bank reprofiling
3.Live willow stakes
4.Fence
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Same site 2013
Betty Ann Bryce of the OECD receives
demonstration of our revetment technique from
IRD Duhallow.
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29 Project actions in total
Action 5 Flood Friendly Fencing
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Action6 Drainage and silt traps
29 Project actions in total
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•Land drainage is a major problem •Some drains over 4m deep! •Responsible for increased water discharge in wet weather •and siltation. •Survey found that 75% of drains (n=70) require silt trapping
ISSUE = Siltation from land drainage
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Confluence of a single freshly dug drain into a tributary of
the SAC (top) and the SAC adjacent to a FPM bed
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New silt trap design
Flow of drain
•15 silt traps in 4 drains (inc 2 Glashas).
•Shown to reduce suspended solids from >1000 to less than 50
•Demonstrations give to local farmers
•Spin off project (LEADER) refining the method further to increase removal of ss.
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Need to engage stakeholders • To get access to land
• To change behaviours
• Maximise and bring in resources
• Worked with partners to maximise output and reduce costs – also considerable goodwill/sponsorship
• Longterm viability of project depends in good buy in
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Making project directly relevant to key stakeholders
• Farmers with land adjacent to river are key stakeholders affecting habitat
• Organised free fishing classes for landowners
• Great way to generate interest and appreciation of the local resource.
• Very popular and great buzz
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Local community monitoring
• Involve the local community in monitoring
• Effective way to get people talking and often brings in new ideas
• Examples; Monitoring of Freshwater Pearl Mussel by Anglers, Sand martins by Duhallow Birdwatch Group
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Outcomes • On practical level; gaining access to land requiring work
(22km fencing, 24km h balsam, silt trapping, ~6km tree pruning, 1000’s of willow, ash, alder planted over 8km stretch, bird boxes, otter holts, monitoring, information signage etc)
• Increasing awareness of local community on importance of SAC.
• Engagement of landowners on level never before achieved in the area.
• Great participation by schoolchildren.
• Increased volunteer activity and learning.
• Active engagement of farming community
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Not goes to “plan”
1. Large scale landscape changes outside the projects control (e.g., large scale clear felling of trees, land drainage or maintenance) –ICM a solution?
2. Lack of quality baseline data
3. Licensing (e.g., photographic license, Appropriate assessment, Notifiable actions, FPM survey license, now Local Authority planning required)
4.Delays in being granted licenses - a major headache
5.Enviromental window paradox
6. Differing expert opinion on whether to intervene or let “nature take its course”
7. Perspective and sense of urgency needed
Doctors differ..................
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Parameter Result
CBOD5 742mg/l O2
COD 5950mg/l O2
Nitrate as N < 4.8mg/l
Phosphorous 23.95mg/l
Ortho-phosphate as P 7.45mg/l
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Need for joined up thinking • Currently dichotomy between
certain EU and Govt policies – e.g., single farm payment vs biodiversity commitments and EU Directives (WFD and Habitats Directive)
• Result farmers encouraged “forced?” into land clearance resulting in environmental damage
• Incentivised industrial non-native forestry replacing moorland and people
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Integrated Catchment Management
What is it?
A catchment approach.
Integration.
A change in philosophy.
Stakeholder involvement, particularly at local community level.
Source: Daly 2013 IAH (Irish Group) Conference “Groundwater & Catchment Management”, Tullamore, April 2013.
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River Allow Catchment Management Plan
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Farmer helps draw down donated Christmas trees and willow to river bank
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Working with people brings results
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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
IRD Duhallow LIFE+ has had some success in rolling out practical measures, but to be effective some of these (e.g., silt traps) need to be rolled out at a much larger scale.
Stakeholder and community participation is key.
Successful protection and restoration of our waters will not be achieved by using the current mainstream approaches.
We believe that Integrated Catchment Management is a process that is suitable for Ireland and that is achievable, provided that there is ‘buy-in’ and it is given a sufficiently high priority and adequate resources.
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Special thanks
Rural Social Scheme participants
Inland Fisheries Staff
Duhallow Environmental Working Group
Kanturk trout Anglers
Blackwater Salmon Trust
Duhallow Birdwatching Group
Mulkear LIFE
City Analysts
University College Cork
University College Dublin
Mary Kelly-Quinn – UCD
Waterford Institute of Technology
Tralee Institute of Technology
Mary Immaculate College/UL
Martin O’Grady - IFI
EPA (Donal Daly and John Lucey)
Numerous individual volunteers and advisors
Staff of IRD Duhallow
Local community and landowners
INTERREG IV TRAP Project (SW Regional Authority)
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Engaging Citizens – Septic Tanks and Private Wells
Margaret Keegan
Water Event Conference
11th June 2014
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What is .....Citizen Engagement?
Increasing level of public involvement
"Individual and collective actions designed
to identify and address issues of public
concern.“
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Why Do It?
The right thing to do?!
Public Value
Good
Governance
Reduced
Costs
Better
Regulation
Maximise
Efficiencies
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EPA engagement with citizens
Septic Tanks
Private Wells
Other EPA awareness campaigns in Ireland
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Septic Tanks - Background
ECJ Ruling against Ireland
Requirement to register all systems
Septic Tank Inspection Regulations
Public consultation
Submissions considered in drafting
regulations
EPA National Inspection Plan for Septic
Tanks
Draft Plan
Public consultation
Meetings with relevant stakeholders
Final Plan took submissions on board
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National Media Campaign -
media, leaflets to all homeowners,
radio ads etc....
Public Objection
‘Carrot’ – reduced rate €5.00 for
early registration, grant if
registered
‘Stick’ – more likely to be
inspected, not eligible for grant
More than 90 %
registration rate
Septic Tank Registration Campaign
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Septic Tanks – The Issues (1)
Septic tanks if not sited, installed,
operated and maintained properly -
pose a risk to human health and
the environment
500,000 systems in the country
However, on a national scale
DWWTS are not considered to
pose a significant risk to rivers
Traditional inspection regime
ALONE will not work
Suspected causes of pollution at 953 Polluted
River Sites Surveyed in 2007-2009
(from a total of over 2500 monitoring sites) –
DWWTS not listed
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Septic Tanks – The Issues (2)
Needed to do something different
Regulatory approaches to Low
Risk Sites and Good Practice
Framework (Black & Baldwin)
Good Regulatory Intervention
Design (GRID)
Two strands to the National
Inspection Plan
Engagement strategies
Risk Based Inspections
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Private Wells – The Issues (1)
30% of Private Wells contaminated with
E.Coli – Ref: EPA Water Quality Report
Increasing trend in incidence of VTEC –
Ref: HSE reports
Strong link to private well water
Private Wells are exempted supplies –
Drinking Water Regulations do not apply.
170,000 private wells according to the
CSO.
Do not know where they are and cannot
inspect them
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Private Wells – The Issues (2)
Need to inform the well owners of
the risks
Change in attitude from ‘pure’
well water
Improve source protection, well
construction
Regular testing
Treatment, if necessary
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Purpose of Information Campaigns
Target rural communities with septic tanks and/or private wells
Raise awareness and inform them of issues that directly affects them but they
may not know about
Deliver in partnership with others
Communicate with the stakeholders whose members are directly affected by
septic tank and private well issues
Improve channels with stakeholders to get message out to the public
Creating awareness and enabling behaviour change
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EPA resources
Website
Web Application
Infographics
Posters
Videos
Social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube)
TV (e.g. Eco Eye)
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Communications Tools (1)
Web App
Self assessment tool
highlighting main risks
Multiple choice answers
Tailored report based on
answers to questions
General stats gathered by
EPA to assist future work on
private wells (no personal or
location data collated)
Multiple platforms
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Communications Tools (2)
Animations
How a Septic Tank system
works?
What to expect from a
Septic Tank inspection?
(English and Irish)
Private Wells – What you
can do to make sure you
well water is safe (English
and Irish)
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Reaching audiences – Working with others
In partnership with local authorities
Environmental awareness officers deliver messages to schools and local
communities
Leaflet distribution to all offices, libraries etc.
Placing the posters in public places such as libraries, art centres etc.
Changing screensaver and background messages on public PCs in libraries
etc. Example -“Clean Water is Vital for your Health. Is your Septic Tank a
risk?”
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Reaching audiences – Working with others
In partnership with health professionals
Joint Press release with HSE on private wells
HSE Spokesperson
Dissemination of information through
Environmental health officers
General practitioners
Public Health doctors
Posters and leaflets in GP offices, health centres etc.
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Reaching audiences - Working with others
Organisations with same message
GSI
An Taisce
Organisations with same target audiences
Farming organisations
Environmental NGOs
Professional Organisations
Industry Bodies
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Reaching audiences - National media
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Reaching audiences - Local media
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Effectiveness of Septic Tank campaign
Registration campaign – 90% registration
Lancaster University dissertation
Metrics
To be refined by STRIVE RELAY Risk project
National Inspection Plan Interim Review
All LAs distributed leaflets, info on website, stakeholder meetings, articles etc…
Operation and Maintenance issues and de-sludging main reasons for failure during inspection
Full Review in August
STRIVE Small Scale Study - Attitudes Survey Majority of respondents stated that they were not provided with information on operation and
maintenance
69.9% respondents were aware that the LA and the EPA were in the process of implementing
public engagement campaign.
Internet, national radio and local newspapers in order of preference.
Those respondents whose private well had previously been contaminated were twice as likely to
acknowledge their septic tank as a potential threat
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Effectiveness of Private Wells campaign
Metrics
Web app usage
Website, Animation hits etc
Level of grant uptake
Increased testing rates
Reduced Illness
Early days
Web App almost 1600 views and 159 responses
Journal.ie 7,000 views, 83 comments
YouTube 151 views
EPA Householder information webpage 2,600 hits
National TV and local radio coverage
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Challenges
Huge lack of awareness of issues regarding septic tanks and risk posed to private
wells 170,000 private wells
500,000 septic tanks
Public opposition e.g. septic tank ‘tax’
Effect of Water Charges Increase in number of private wells
Proper construction, testing and treatment
Not necessarily low cost option
Successful implementation of campaign requires collaboration with others Resource implications
Agreed Messages – what do people want information on, what format?
Effective communication – non-technical language, New skills
Assessment of effectiveness
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