CONSULTATION ON THE NITRATES ACTION PROGRAMME REGULATIONS (NORTHERN IRELAND) 2010

On 4 June 2010, Environment Minister, Edwin Poots MLA and Agriculture Minister, Michelle Gildernew MP MLA, announced a joint consultation exercise, proposing changes to implementation of the Nitrates Directive Action Programme. The Directive is designed to protect surface waters and groundwaters from the harmful effects of agricultural pollution.

The current Nitrates Action Programme which has been in place since 2007 must be reviewed by the end of 2010 and an updated Programme put in place for the next four years. In addition, the EU Derogation Decision expires at the end of 2010 and both Ministers reiterated their commitment to secure renewal of the Derogation which is particularly important for the local intensive grassland sector.

The Department of the Environment (DOE) and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) (the Departments) would welcome any comment you may wish to make on the proposals made, and the issues raised, in this consultation paper (including the Partial Regulatory Impact Assessment). Where you disagree with any proposal, please provide evidence in support of alternative proposals. Comments on the may be made as follows:-

Dr Fiona Wilson
Water Framework Team
Planning and Natural Resources Division
Department of the Environment
1st Floor Calvert House
23 Castle Place
Belfast
BT1 1FY

Comments on the issues and proposals raised in this paper should reach the Departments by 13 August 2010.

Background

The Nitrates Directive is aimed at preventing and reducing water pollution by nitrates from agricultural sources. The Departments have joint statutory responsibility for implementation of the Directive.

The Directive allows Member States to either designate and apply action programmes to discrete areas of land known as Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs), or establish an action programme to be applied to the whole territory. Action programmes require farmers to observe rules to reduce nutrient losses to water, with measures on storing manure and controls on the application of manure and chemical nitrogen fertiliser to land. Such measures help to combat eutrophication, which is a major environmental threat to Northern Ireland’s waters. Eutrophication is an excess of nutrients (nitrates and phosphorus) in the water which can lead to algal blooms (scums), over growth of weeds, deoxygenation, fish kills, higher water treatment costs and loss of biodiversity and amenity value. As eutrophication is recognised as a major problem, legislation covering all farms in Northern Ireland was considered the best option for local implementation of the Nitrates Directive. The Departments’ aim is to fulfil the Directive’s environmental obligations while supporting a sustainable agriculture industry - one that can compete, make money and at the same time, maintain a healthy environment.

The Nitrates Directive requires Member States to introduce action programmes to reduce nitrates from agricultural sources entering the aquatic environment and to review their action programmes every four years. In Northern Ireland an action programme was set out in the Nitrates Action Programme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (2006 NAP Regulations) and came into operation on 1 January 2007. The Regulations may be viewed below or may be obtained from TSO.e Decision into Northern Ireland legislation coming into operation on 9 June 2008. The Regulations may be viewed below or may be obtained from TSO

Following the introduction of the 2006 NAP Regulations (which place a livestock manure application limit of 170kg Nitrogen per hectare per year), Northern Ireland also successfully applied for a derogation allowing farmers who meet certain criteria to apply up to 250kg Nitrogen per hectare per year (kg N/ha/year) from grazing livestock manures. On 14 December 2007 Commission Decision 2007/863/EC was issued granting Derogation to Northern Ireland. The Decision may be viewed below.

The Nitrates Action Programme (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008 transposing the Decision into Northern Ireland legislation came into operation on 9 June 2008. The Regulations may be viewed below or may be obtained from TSO.

When the 2006 NAP Regulations came into operation they contained a temporary provision allowing the storage of poultry litter in a field heaps up to 31 December 2008. The provision was included to allow time for development of an off-farm solution as an alternative to land spreading of poultry litter. Progress was not made in the timescale originally envisaged and, to ensure poultry farmers could continue to operate, amending Regulations were made. These Regulations permitted the continued use of poultry litter field heaps to 31 December 2010 and allowed farm businesses to use the quantity of poultry litter, stored in temporary field heaps or middens prior to land application, to be off-set against the storage capacity requirement for a poultry enterprise. The Regulations may be viewed below or may be obtained from TSO

The Nitrates Directive requires Member States to review their action programmes every four years. The 2006 NAP Regulations must therefore be reviewed and, where necessary, revised by 31 December 2010. The European Commission Decision granting the Derogation expires on 31 December 2010 and needs to be renewed due to its importance to intensive grassland farms in Northern Ireland. The Departments, therefore, propose to make the Nitrates Action Programme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010 in December 2010, to come into operation on 1 January 2011.

The Departments have started the process to apply for renewal of the Derogation from 1 January 2011. This process involves a formal application to the European Commission and presentation for a Member State vote at the EU Nitrates Committee. However, before a formal application to renew the Derogation can be progressed, the European Commission must be satisfied that an acceptable action programme will be in place for 2011 to 2014.

Based on previous experience the Departments began the process to collate the scientific evidence necessary to support the application in 2009. A Scientific Working Group was established in autumn 2009 comprising officials from the Departments and the Agri-food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI). The Group was tasked with reviewing the 2007 to 2010 action programme and Derogation.

On 24 November 2009 a stakeholder event was held at AFBI Hillsborough with representatives from the agricultural industry, environmental organisations and other Government departments in attendance. Presentations were made by the Departments and their agencies represented on the Scientific Working Group detailing the initial findings of the review. Additionally, the Ulster Farmers Union and the environmental organisations presented their initial views on what the new action programme and Derogation need to achieve. The presentations are listed below and may be viewed by clicking on the links.

Stakeholders had the opportunity to consider the presentations made and provide feedback through workshops on the current action programme.

The Review Report was finalised following the stakeholder workshop and included feedback from the event. The Report was submitted to the European Commission in December 2009 and has been discussed by Departmental officials at meetings with the Commission in January and March 2010. The Review Report and its annexes can be viewed below:

A further meeting between the Departments and stakeholders was also held in April 2010 at CAFRE, Greenmount Campus. This provided the opportunity to advise stakeholders on the outcome of meetings with the European Commission and progress being made on the consultation for the proposed action programme and Derogation for 2011 to 2014.

In accordance with Article 8(1) of Commission Decision 2007/863/EC (granting a derogation to Northern Ireland), Northern Ireland must update and send to the Commission three maps every year, showing the percentage of grassland farms, percentage of livestock and percentage of agricultural land covered by an individual derogation in each District of Northern Ireland.

Article 10 of Commission Decision 2007/863/EC also requires that the results of monitoring be transmitted to the Commission annually, with a concise report on water quality and evaluation practice. The report must provide information on how the evaluation of the implementation of the derogation conditions is carried on through controls at farm level and include information on non-compliant farms based on results of administrative and field inspections.

To meet these requirements, a combined report for 2007 and 2008 was submitted to the European Commission in November 2009. The report includes maps for 2008 and 2009, monitoring undertaken since the derogation was granted and implementation of, and compliance with, the derogation controls for 2007 and 2008. The derogation report can be viewed below:

It was acknowledged that action on nitrates alone was insufficient to tackle eutrophication and in recognition of this the Phosphorus (Use in Agriculture) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 also came into operation on 1 January 2007. These established limits on the amount of chemical phosphorus fertiliser to be applied to crop requirement taking into account phosphorus available from soil and organic manures. They are outside the scope of the review of the 2006 NAP Regulations.

Nitrates

CONSULTATION ON THE NITRATES ACTION PROGRAMME REGULATIONS (NORTHERN IRELAND) 2010

The consultation paper may be viewed below

Consultation on Nitrates Action Programme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010 (406kb)

In writing to:

Dr Fiona Wilson
Water Framework Team
Planning and Natural Resources Division
Department of the Environment
1st Floor Calvert House
23 Castle Place
Belfast
BT1 1FY

By fax:028 9025 4732
By text phone028 9054 0642
By e-mail to fiona.wilson@doeni.gov.uk

Comments on the issues and proposals raised in this paper should reach the Departments by 13 August 2010.