Slurry threat to Blue Flag beaches

Pembrokeshire’s Blue Flag beaches, so important for the county’s image and tourist offer, are under threat from Welsh Government environmental regulations imposed at the behest of the European Union. How could such a situation have come about? You might well ask. Bear with me, for this is a complicated tale.

Every four years the Cleddau river catchment, which covers about 80 per cent of Pembrokeshire’s land area, is tested for nitrates that are largely caused by farm waste flowing into the water system. If they are too high they cause the growth of algae and other harmful organisms. In turn this upsets the fish and plant life that depend on the health of the waters in Milford Haven and the Marine Special Conservation Area beyond.

When the rivers were last tested in 2012 the nitrate levels almost reached the point where the Welsh Government would have been obliged to impose severe restrictions. As Ged Davies, Pembrokeshire Team Leader for Natural Resources Wales told me, “It was too close to call.”

If a Nitrates Vulnerable Zone had been declared it would have had a massive impact on the 1,800 farms that operate within the river catchment area. There would have been severe limits on the amount of muck spreading, a requirement for much greater winter slurry storage capacity, a clamp down on fertilizers, and strict record keeping of nitrate discharges.

It now looks inevitable that all this will be demanded following the latest measurement of nitrate levels. A report goes to the Welsh Government in October and it will make an announcement early next year with the likely imposition of a Nitrates Zone from the beginning of 2017.

If this happens farmers will be faced with a stark choice: to either reduce the livestock on their land and consequently their income, or increase the amount of land for muck spreading. Many will opt for the latter and look first to buying or renting land immediately adjacent to the Nitrates Zone. The problem is that much of this is next to the coast. As Ged Davies says, “The land outside the Nitrate Vulnerable Zone would likely be in the coastal fringe, in the National Park, and draining to bathing waters. This land would be available for unregulated and potential over applications of slurry. This could have the unforeseen effect of the Nitrates Directive adversely affecting the Bathing Water Directive.”

Hence the threat to EU designated Blue Flag beaches that is coming from EU environmental regulations. So what can be done? One option is for farmers to work with Natural Resources Wales on a voluntary basis to reduce their nitrate output. Ged Davies points to a successful scheme that has operated in recent years among farmers supplying the First Milk cheese processing plant at Merlins Bridge.

If initiatives of this kind could be undertaken across Pembrokeshire there is a chance we could avoid the imposition of a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone in 2017 and the unintended consequences that would be likely to follow for our Blue Flag beaches. But for that to happen there should be an injection of urgency with action taken now.