Delegates from Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Faroe Islands and Northern Ireland will attend an international conference in Letterkenny on Wednesday this week looking at bioremediation to manage runoff from agriculture, mining and landfills.
This conference, which is being hosted by Donegal County Council, is part of an innovative EU funded project called WaterPro which aims to develop sustainable systems to protect water quality from agricultural and mining pollution.
This conference is being held as part of a 3 day visit by the WaterPro partners and the Cathaoirleach Cllr. Terence Slowey believes that exploring effective ways to protect our rivers and lakes from runoff pollution is very important and by working with transnational partners on projects such as this Donegal County Council is able to share and learn from others as well as have an opportunity to test and develop innovative sustainable solutions to help address our own environmental challenges.
One of the key highlights of this conference is a site visit to Churchtown Landfill site in Lifford which has been restored and uses a combination of an irrigated willow plantation and integrated constructed wetlands to treat leachate before it enters the River Finn. The River Finn is one of Europe's best salmon and sea trout rivers and Donegal County Council is committed to protecting this wonderful resource by ensuring that all leachate is treated effectively.
The Council has introduced a plant based leachate treatment system at Churchtown and as part of the WaterPro project, the Council will, in close consultation with the EPA, analyse the results from these bioremediation processes with a view to ensuring that similar systems can be replicated elsewhere.
The visiting delegates will attend their own project management meeting on Tuesday in Inishowen and this will be followed by a visit to Ireland’s most northerly point at Malin Head.
This project is funded by the Interreg VB Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme and partners include Savonia University of Applied Sciences Ltd, Finland, [Lead Partner], Geological Survey of Finland, Agricultural University of Iceland, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, Agricultural Agency, Heriott Watt University, Scotland, Faroe Islands, Lough Neagh Partnership, Magherafelt and AFBI ( Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute), Belfast and Donegal County Council.
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