Green issues making the news

Fridges began to pile up across Northern Ireland

BBC NI's environment correspondent Mike McKimm reflects on the environmental issues that dominated the news during 2002.

Environmental matters pushed their way into the headlines as soon as the year began.

Fridges started to pile up across Northern Ireland as new European legislation on CFC gases forced local councils to stop dumping fridges containing these into landfill sites.

Awaiting instructions from the environment ministry DEFRA in London, councils have been storing the fridges ever since and as the year ended, they remain lurking in various parts of the countryside, as oblivious to their fate as those who marshal them.

This shock had hardly subsided when the BBC examined the Silent Valley, Northern Ireland's main water supply and discovered it to be far below its safe level.

Water levels were low at beginning of the year

It should have been full, but in January it was just over half full. This caused a water shortage scare with the minister responsible, Peter Robinson, advising us to proverbially tighten our collective belts, or in this case stop wasting water.

It took almost a year for the reservoir to fill up after one of the wettest years on record, which doesn't bode well for the future.

So with two headline stories focusing attention on environmental matters just days into the new year, the public could only watch and wonder as areas not previously considered to be newsworthy forced themselves upon journalists and worried ministers alike.

And they were worried. When planners refused to give the go-ahead to hundreds of planning applications, more than 50 hot spots across Northern Ireland were declared as no-go areas, because the sewage treatment plants weren't up to it.

The stalemate was resolved between the planners and the Department of Regional Development by careful forward planning and lots of promises. It was to be one of the assembly's first inter-departmental spats.

Buildings

There was also a spat between UNESCO and the DOE over the Giant's Causeway. UNESCO had threatened to remove their World Heritage label for the Causeway because they claimed the DOE were not playing by the rules.

Finally, after various promises, the DOE came up with the plans for a management plan for the Causeway Coast.

At the same time the local council, Moyle, had threatened on and off to sell the land around part of the Causeway. It was a threat that caused great panic amongst conservationists. The matter was resolved when the sale was withdrawn for good.

Giant's Causeway: Plans for future were highlighted

The public appetite for the environment during the year was whetted further by historical buildings being knocked down by frustrated developers, largely because the law let them.

But at the back of many of the problems is a list of EU directives as long as your arm. Many are long overdue and are only given an air of importance by the vast fines they will attract if ignored for much longer.

Included in their number are key pollution prevention measures. One reason for the delay of some of these was the unpopular reaction that would follow their adoption.

Ironically since the fall of the assembly, the measures are starting to stack up at Westminster, in advance of their being rushed through to meet EU deadlines.

It is perhaps the only way the political fallout has been a distinct advantage to Northern Ireland, albeit short term.

Sadly, for the environment, 2003 looks set to be a very similar year of indecision and mild panic.