Heavy soil and intense pressures are leading to poor water quality in Cavan and Monaghan's rivers and lakes. That's according to Shane O'Boyle, senior scientific officer with the office of environmental assessment, who spoke to Northern Sound this afternoon about water quality in the region.
He was speaking in the aftermath of a new water quality report that shows the poorest quality lakes in the country are located in this region. Mr O'Boyle says that one third of rivers in the Cavan, Monaghan, Longford and Leitrim have been branded "in an unsatisfactory condition", and below the national average.
He added that Monaghan was the best of the four but was still below standard. "On an annual basis there is 60,000t of Nitrogen that gets washed from the land into our rivers and ends up in the sea.
"That's what causes the impact that we are seeing in our estuaries. That has really stood out for us in this report in that we are seeing a 16% decline in our estuarine water quality."
