{"id":477816,"date":"2026-06-01T17:50:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T17:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/477816\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T17:50:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T17:50:45","slug":"uisce-eireann-eyes-golf-courses-for-spreading-sewage-sludge-as-farmland-options-run-out-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/477816\/","title":{"rendered":"Uisce \u00c9ireann eyes golf courses for spreading sewage sludge as farmland options run out \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uisce \u00c9ireann<\/a> is running out of space to spread sewage sludge and may look to use it on golf courses and race courses. <\/p>\n

The water company spreads 70,000 tonnes of \u201cbiosolids\u201d \u2013 dried, sterilised and granulated faeces, fats and grease from toilets and sinks \u2013 on farmland each year. <\/p>\n

Volumes are expected to increase significantly in the coming years as the population grows. <\/p>\n

Documents published as part of a public consultation on the issue show just 130 farms are spread with the waste. <\/p>\n

Options for using more farmland are limited as most farms already have large quantities of animal manures spread on them in the form of slurry. <\/p>\n

Bord Bia<\/a> will not allow its approved farm certification to be displayed on food produced on farms where waste is spread.<\/p>\n

The documents show other ideas being considered are spreading on landfills, in mine restoration projects or in forests.<\/p>\n

The biosolids could also be mixed with cement, incinerated or added to anaerobic digesters with farm waste to make biogas. <\/p>\n

Uisce \u00c9ireann says it is looking for public input to its new National Bioresources Strategy to decide a \u201clong-term vision for the sustainable management of wastewater sludge\u201d. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0D\u00fan Laoghaire swimmers defiant despite water quality warning: \u2018I\u2019ve done worse things for me than swimming in the sea\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cAdvances in research, innovation and technology are increasing the potential to recover energy and valuable resources from wastewater sludge treatment processes,\u201d said Aoife Kyne, asset planning bioresources manager at the company. <\/p>\n

The volume of treated wastewater sludge that needs to be disposed of is small by comparison with the 40 million tonnes of animal manures spread on land each year. But it is expected to rise by more than one-third, to 96,000 tonnes, by 2040. <\/p>\n

The human and food waste that makes up the sludge contains phosphorus, potassium, ammonia and nitrogen that can be used as fertilisers. <\/p>\n

But Uisce \u00c9ireann said it can also contain \u201ccontaminants of concern\u201d such as microplastics, pharmaceuticals, viruses, bacteria, heavy metals and so-called forever chemicals \u2013 persistent organic pollutants and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognise the need to monitor source control to protect wastewater sludge quality,\u201d the company said. <\/p>\n

\u201cMonitoring is also carried out on treated biosolids before reusing in agriculture.\u201d <\/p>\n

It said, however, there were currently no limits for levels of organic pollutants in treated biosolids used in agriculture.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is proposed that research and recommendations in this area are reviewed regularly, and we will undertake additional analysis as needs emerge to mitigate against any risk to soils or health,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Uisce \u00c9ireann is running out of space to spread sewage sludge and may look to use it on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[97853,246,61,60,82,776],"class_list":["post-477816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-bord-bia-irish-food-board","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-uisce-eireann"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}