Despite its rural hinterland, the Lough Swilly catchment’s main issue outside of agriculture is urban wastewater. File photograph: Bryan O'Brien
Ireland’s rivers, lakes and estuaries carry evidence of all the human activities around them and, as the latest Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report found, this burden is choking the life out of them.
The main stressor is agriculture, with cowpats, slurry and fertilisers, all rich in nitrogen and phosphorus, running off fields into adjoining waterways.
Dramatic changes result as these extra nutrients supercharge plant and algal growth, depleting the oxygen and blocking the light needed by other creatures.
But, looking at the issues facing a selection of catchments ar
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