This catchment is north of the village of Ballycanew, near Gorey in Co. Wexford. It is just over 1,100ha in area. The main farm enterprises are beef and dairying with spring barley being the main tillage crop. It is mainly representative of heavier soils used for grass-based production in the south and south-east of Ireland. About 2/3 of the catchment has poorly drained soils being on the edge of the Mackamores; as a result phosphorus is the main nutrient at risk of loss from this site through overland flow.There is also a risk of nitrogen loss through leaching on the more freely drained soils to the west of the catchment.
The new campaign will increase the number of sampling locations, what will provide a more accurate illustration in smaller sub-catchments.
Another day of pesticide sampling. Every 15 days we return here to sample the river using Chemcatcher.
Chemcatcher passive sampling devices were installed in the Ballycanew and Castledockerell catchment outlets.
The first batch of 28 samples will be analysed for routine quality indicators as well as acid herbicides including MCPA and their breakdown products
A field site has been selected to carry out baseline and Controlled Application trials of MCPA.The Actionlab will then be monitoring its movement in the environment post-application.
A kick-off meeting for the WaterProtect - Irish Actionlab was held by the project partners with invited supportive stakeholders on the 28th June 2017 at Teagasc Environmental Research Centre, Johnstown Castle, Wexford.