Jersey in EU hot water over nitrate limits?

Thursday 23 April 2015

Action could be taken over nitrate levels over EU safety limits in Jersey's water, according to the Environment department.

The latest figures show that Jersey Water's supplies are within EU limits, but "raw water" running off fields regularly exceeds them. The Environment department has issued the water company with a dispensation that expires on 31 December 2016 - the company haven't had to use that dispensation since 2013, for a slight breach of the limit.

The comments came during a hearing in which it was revealed that thousands of families are relying on borehole water that is over the EU safety limits. There are around 8,000 people living off borehole water, and around half of those are over the current EU limits.

Jersey isn’t the only place potentially in hot water over nitrate limits – the UK, Germany, Belgium and Malta also have water that is over the EU safety limit.

Environment Minister Steve Luce said: “One thing that is changing is that the medical advice from around the world is different and certainly there is more emphasis being placed on the levels of nitrate in water.

“We are advised, as the Department which issues dispensations to Jersey Water, that our advice will be quite soon that we should not be continuing to issue dispensations, so we are fully aware now that in the coming years we may well not be in a position to issue those dispensations.”

His department say that in 1994, nitrate levels were recorded at 70 miligrams per litre – that figure had reduced to 58 miligrams by 2013, because Jersey Water and the Environment department had worked to get the numbers down.

But it takes around two years for any action to filter through to affecting nitrate levels, so there is a lead-in to actually making an impact.

Deputy Luce told the hearing of the Environment Scrutiny Panel last month: “We are talking to farmers, and certainly where I have the opportunity now, I am telling the agricultural industry that this is an issue that cannot be brushed under the table any longer, it has got to be addressed, it has got to be addressed in short order, as it turns out.”