Most UK dairy farms ignore pollution rules and waste flows into rivers

Most dairy farms in the UK are breaching pollution rules, with large amounts of cow dung flowing into rivers.

When animal waste enters rivers, it can lead to the accumulation of nutrients in the wastewater, such as nitrates and phosphates. These can cause algae blooms that deplete oxygen in waterways and block sunlight, causing fish and other aquatic life to suffocate.

According to new figures released under freedom of information laws, 69% of 2,475 UK dairy farms inspected by the Environment Agency between 2020 and 2021 breached environmental regulations.

The problem is widespread across the UK; 80% of 83 dairy farms inspected by Natural Resources Wales between 2020 and 2022 did not comply with anti-pollution regulations. In Northern Ireland, 50% of 339 dairy farms inspected by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs between 2020 and 2022 were non-compliant; in Scotland, 114 initially inspected by the Scottish Environment Agency between 2020 and 2022 60% of dairy farms are non-compliant.

Activists have linked the pollution scandal to that caused by the sewage crisis, as it also involves aging infrastructure and rising sewage discharges.

They say pricing pressure from supermarkets has led producers to boost production by raising more cows, while supermarkets provide farmers with little milk.

Charles Watson, chairman of the charity River Action, said: “The unacceptable levels of pollution caused by the UK dairy industry are not dissimilar to the current UK sewage pollution crisis: aging infrastructure creates a wastewater environment for much lower sewage volumes. And design, is overwhelmed by the combination of the two.

It’s been calculated that a herd of 50 cattle emits the same amount of pollution as a residential area of ​​10,000 people, so it’s no surprise that the dairy industry imposes an unsustainable pollution burden on many river basins across the country. Meanwhile, another chapter in Britain’s river pollution scandal unfolds, as our powerless regulators continue to stand by in a purely advisory capacity and the major supermarket groups happily calculate their profits at the expense of the continued degradation of the environment.

Action Rivers calls on dairy processors to provide incentives for farmers who produce milk responsibly, either by reducing intensive farming or by investing in responsible handling of cow manure.

It also calls for a stepped-up response from regulators, requiring them to fully enforce existing anti-pollution rules. Many farms have not been inspected for years because regulators are underfunded and don’t have enough staff. Rivers Action has asked devolved national agencies responsible for expanding and extending existing grant schemes to improve mud management infrastructure.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “We have set ambitious legally binding targets to reduce water pollution from agriculture and are taking wide-ranging action to clean up our waterways. These include investing $74 million in slurry infrastructure to help farmers reduce agricultural runoff and rolling out new farming schemes to thousands of farmers to deliver environmental benefits and more sustainable practices to reduce the amount of nutrients entering rivers .