Concerns once again raised about 'deplorable' state of previously polluted river in Tipperary

At a recent sitting of the Cahir/Tipperary/Cashel monthly meeting this September, a disagreement arose between some councillors regarding water quality in the River Ara.

Fran Igoe of the Local Authority Waters Programme (Lawpro), gave a presentation on the day about a recent report regarding water quality in the county.

The report outlined that water quality across the county dropped significantly and that Tipperary saw a significant drop in quality compared to other counties in Ireland over the same period of time.

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Fine Gael Cllr John Crosse began the discussion when he told the meeting that he recently spoke with a reporter and told him that there weren't any issues with the River Ara.

“I don’t want to be raising any alarms about co-op’s and milk and farmers,” began the councillor. Cllr Crosse said that he received a call from a reporter after news emerged that up to 42,000 fish were found dead in a river in Cork.

A recent report published on September 25 found that the cause of the death of the fish in the Blackwater river in Cork has not yet been identified.

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“They were asking about Arrabawn and Tipp Co-Op in relation to the River Ara and I told the reporter that standards were of a very high level now,” he said. “My understanding is that everything is good with the River Ara.”

The river Ara is no stranger to pollution as just last October, Tipperary Co-Operative Creamery Ltd. pleaded guilty to water pollution breaches of the River Ara at Tipperary Town, resulting in the company having to pay more than €7,100.

Independent Cllr John O’Heney told the meeting that he did not agree with Cllr John Cross’s statement. “I have to disagree with Cllr Crosse on his comments that things are well with the River Ara at the minute, I would say the total opposite.

"I’ve never seen a river in a worse state in a town, it’s unbelievably bad. This is not my opinion, this is the opinion of the townspeople, it’s totally overgrown. I’m all for natural vegetation and natural biodiversity but it’s in a deplorable state,” said Cllr O’Heney.

The councillor went on to say that he has raised this issue previously numerous times at past meetings, and with LAWPRO and inland fisheries.

“If you just walk around the town, stand outside the abbey and look at the river, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that there’s something wrong here,” said the councillor.

“Is there a plan in place for this? What is the procedure and what are we going to do about this, the River Ara in Tipperary Town. It cannot continue in the current state that it’s in,” asked Cllr O’Heney.

Sinn Fein Cllr Annemarie Shiner agreed with Cllr O’Heney, saying she was contacted frequently about the overgrowth in the river. Cllr Shiner went on to ask Mr Igoe who was responsible for clearing the overgrowth in the river.

Cllr John Crosse clarified that he was previously asking the meeting a question when he made the above remarks. “I asked a question about the River Ara and the conditions of it,” said Cllr Crosse.

Mr Igoe responded to the councillors queries about the River Ara, commenting that it was an unusual river that goes very low in the summertime.

He told the meeting that this meant that the volume of water was lower and not as able to absorb pollutants, as some other rivers. In terms of a plan in place to manage the river, Mr Igoe suggested that a plan be built into the council's biodiversity plan.

In response to whose responsibility it is to keep the river clean, he said that some of these solutions should the responsibility of a mixture of organisations. “Between the state, LAWPRO, other agencies and community agencies like Lions Clubs and local tidy towns groups,” he explained.