Galway Bay fm newsroom - An NUI Galway-led study, funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, has raised questions over the application of sewage sludge to land as a fertiliser.
Sewage sludge is a by-product of wastewater treatment processes, and up to 80% of sludge produced in Irish wastewater treatment plants is applied each year as fertiliser to agricultural land.
This practice is not permitted in some other European countries.
The research project, led by Dr Mark Healy, found that despite the many potential benefits of recycling sewage sludge to land, there are many risks involved.
These include the presence of emerging contaminants and metals in sewage sludge and the potential for surface runoff of harmful contaminants into receiving waters.
