ANNEX 17

 

Waterford County Council
Comhairle Chontae Phortläirge

FILE COPY

 

Measures Report for the Phosphorous Regulations, 1998
(S.I. No. 258 of 1998)

Mr. ‚2. L.Eng FIEIMIHT

Couniy zugıneer

Waterford County Council

Waterford County Civic Offices

Dungarvan

Co. Waterford July 1999

Phosphorous Regulations - Measures Report No.1

 

SECTION 1 BACKGROUND

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1.1 Reason for Report n
Article 4(2) of the Phosphorous Regulations (S.I. No. 258 of 1998) requires that local /
authorities submit a report to the Agency by July 31*, 1999 setting out the measures |
to be taken to secure complaince with standards prescribed by the Regulations.

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1.2 General Approach

This section sets out the overall management approach as recommended by the EPA
(hereafter known as the Agency), The.approach to be used ‚Operates on the basic ‚principle
of continual improvement, through the use of an environmental management systems
approach. } WO EAN NUT. NENNE Tre En

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1.3 _ Regional Aspects

The River Suir and the River Blackwater flow through a number of counties. In the case
of the Suir - County Tipperary, County Kilkenny and County Waterford. The Blackwater
flows through Co. Cork and Co. Waterford. As a result there is a need for co-ordination
of measures in order to implement the regulations.

1.4 General Description-Waterford County

The functional area of Waterford County Council as shown in figure 1.1 amounts to
181,616 hectares. The area comprises the entire area of County Waterford, excluding
Waterford City. The County is bordered to the west by County Cork, and to the east by
County Wexford. Counties Tipperary and Kilkenny lie to the north-west and the north-
east respectively. The county is bordered to the south by the Atlantic Ocean, for
appr. .mately 145 kilometres, and containing some very attractive beaches. There are in

Dotal some 4% beaches, among which are numbered some important tourist resorts. The
largest of these is Tramore, which has approximately 3km of beach and is one of Irelands
largest tourist centres.

The county contains parts of the Knockmealdown and Comeragh Mountain Ranges to the
North, and the Monavullagh Mountains in the centre of the County. These mountains
contain peaks in the 700-800 meter range.

In the mountainous areas, there are large areas of peat land. Soil qualities, which vary, are
generally good throughout the county with the exception of the upland areas. There are
areas of good agricultural land throughout the county.

The county contains a significant number of medium and small population centres. The
largest of these is Dungarvan, with circa 7,000 population and Tramore containing
approximately 6,000 population. Other population centres with over 1,000 population
include Dunmore East, Lismore and Portlaw.

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SAOSPIOTDUS REZUIÄTONS - Measures Report No. i

commonage inuse and setaside land. It does not include roads; ‚water, swamps, woods, forests,
rocks, outcrops, unused rough grazing, unused bogs or buildings.

Data on agriculture, however, understate the importance of the sector to the County, in
relation both to the food manufacturing sector and the services sector, which are both

interrelated and partly dependent on agricultural activity.
Tourism
Waterford County is promoted as a rural area of tremendous physical beauty. It contains

a number of natural scenic attractions including the Comeragh Drive, the Nire Valley,
designated scenic woodlands, Blue Flag beaches and the Blackwater River..

Tourism Development International Ltd. prepared on behalf of Waterford Tourism Ltd, a

Tourism Plan for Waterford in June 1996. Tourism Development International estimated
in 1995, Waterford attracted 907,000 persons approximately who spent an estimated

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“ £83.4m. An estimated 60% of current visitors to County Waterford are from the domestic

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market with the balance originating from overseas markets and Northern Ireland. The
Plan, subject to the implementation of its recommendations, forecasts a 30% increase in
visitor numbers (1.2m approx.) by the year 2000 with a projected expenditure of 140.0m.

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Transport Infrastructure

The primary road network includes the N25, and N72. The N25(also Euroroute E30)
links Waterford City with Cork and Rosslare and is an important national route. The road
by-passes Dungarvan and has been subject to a major programme of improvements.

The N24 skirts the north of the county and provides access to Clonmel, Tipperary and
Limerick. The National Secondary Route N72 joins the N25 at Dungarvan providing

access to the south and south west.

W*terford County is serviced by a comprehensive network of regional and county roäds.

@ Tuv nearest rail access for the county is via Clonmel, Waterford City or Carrick-On-Suir.

Groundwater Usage And Pulnerability

There are 110 public water supply schemes in Waterford County including 92
schemes which are supplied from groundwater sources. Twenty two groundwater public

supplies have known yields in excess of 100m3/day, see (Table 1.5). The most important
groundwater public supply is at Ballinamuck (Dungarvan) with an average daily

abstraction of 7,300m3/day.

The remaining public groundwater supplies generally abstract less than 100m3/day.

Many of these remaining groundwater public supplies are very small, serving a few
houses, with a daily usage of less than 10m3/day. While the majority of groundwater
supplies are boreholes there are approximately 30 (generally small) springs which are

exploited as public supplies.

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Note: Utilised Agricultural Area (UAA) is the area actually farmed by the farmer. It consists of area
under cereals, crops, horticulture, grass whether permanent or rotational, rough grazing in use,

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Phosphorous Regulations - Measures Report No.1

  

At present, there are 39 group water schemes in the county. The number of schemes is
continually being revised due to appliction for inclusion from the general public, see
Table 1.6 —- Group Water Schemes with daily capacity > 45m?/d.
R N) Dual URN. ;
In areas not served by local authority schemes and group schemes, individual private
wells are likely to be the main source of water. In addition to drinking water supplies,
groundwater is also used for industrial Purposes such as metal, glass, meat and industries,
poultry farms and creameries. }
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It is estimated from the available data that approximately 28% of the public water supply
in County Waterford comes from groundwater. This figure does not include group water
schemes. 1: m
Large'areas of County Waterford have a depth to bediock öf-less than 3 metres and as'a
resült"groundwater in approximately_öne third of the county is. classified as being !
extremely vulnerable to pollutions These areas include most of the upland regions in the
ounty and much of the volcanic terrain in east Waterford.

 
 
  
 

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n Most of the remaining areas have a combination of subsoil types and depth to bedrock
which results in a vulnerability rating of high. The sandstone till in the west and north of
the county has an intermediate permeability and is generally less than 10 metres thick,
and the shale and volcanic tills in east and central Waterford have a low permeability and
are generally between 3 and 5 metres thick.

{Due to the shallow depth of subsoil over most ofthe county, Waterford is likely to have a
greater proportion of “extreme” and “high” vulnerability areas than most of the other
ounties in Ireland.

| subsoil deposits. exist; for example between Waterford City and Dungarvan, and in some

: ofthe limestone valleys in west Waterford (west of Ardmore and east of Ballyduff), refer |

;to Appendix 2, Map No. 6(E) and 6 (W) from the GSI, which illustrate groundwater |

! "Inerability A

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ni areas of moderate and low vulnerability have been identified where data for thicker

A list of surface water public supplies are shown on Table 1.7.