THE secretary of the Quoile Angling Club is worried about what the future holds for the Quoile River.
Stephen O’Hare is also a member of the ‘Clean the Quoile’ campaign.
Stephen, who has lived in the Downpatrick area all his life, believes the problems with the river have reached breaking point.
“There needs to be urgent action because if there is not, I don’t know what is going to happen,” he said.
“Basically the Quoile is going to die.
“It is getting to a state where money will have to be spent on it, but who is going to spend it?”
The flooding that had a devastating effect on local businesses in Downpatrick last winter brought the health of the Quoile River to the forefront of local people’s minds.
Stephen said: “The flooding that we had before Christmas was what is called fluvial flooding, that is flooding from the rivers, the dams were saturated and they couldn’t drain.
“That is due to lack of investment and lack of maintenance of those drainage systems.”
He pointed out that the river’s reputation as a haven for anglers is also disappearing.
“The fish population has gone right down. The Quoile barrier was broken for 11 years and they allowed seals into the river to eat the fish.
“They came in and ate thousands of fish. They dealt with most of the big Pike.
“The Quoile was one of the best rivers for Pike.
“There was a couple of big fish kills because of pollution as well.
“Under the flood barrier there is a layer of toxic silt. Sometime when there is a big flood of fresh cold water it stirs that silt up and takes the oxygen out of the water and kills the fish.”
There are a number of problems which Stephen believes contribute to the poor health of the river.
One of those is the large amount of silt and material that has gathered in the river, which has decreased its capacity.
“There is an area around the railway bridge, where the railway museum has a bridge over the river. Half of the river is blocked there due to pollution.
“There has been artificial land created due to pollution. I did a rough calculation and it is about three quarters of an acre of stuff.
“There are a couple of real bad areas that need attention where there are tonnes of toxic stuff that needs to be removed.
“I was out on a canoe and the depth of water was the depth of a canoe paddle. The depth of that water used to be 10-12 foot deep at one stage.
“There are areas used for recreation, but they are not safe.
“If a person fell in, they would get stuck. You would not be able to get out.”
And Stephen pointed out that the reducing capacity of the river leads to flooding.
“As every year passes, the Quoile gets more silted up the whole way along its length.
“That contributes to flooding, we believe.
“The water has nowhere to go. The land is saturated.
“There is a network of drains around Downpatrick around the marshes that are all connected to the Quoile River.
“For hundreds of years they were draining the marshes and taking the water away from the town, into the river and on out into the sea.”
But they can no longer do so.
Then there is the issue of pollution. This damages the wildlife in the river.
“The water quality is poor.
“The invertebrates are poor, the plant life and flora has gone through the floor due to pollution.
“Recently we posted footage from a local angler of sanitary towels and other waste that was lying along the banks of the river. That waste is supposed to be screened but it is not. But with the floods that we had the sewage systems were overwhelmed.”
Stephen says there are similarities between what has been happening in Lough Neagh, and what is happening in the Quoile River.
Lough Neagh, every year, sees occurrences of algal blooms which are harmful.
“There is nitrification (in the Quoile River) which is enrichment of the water due to sewage slurry, and that allows algae. It is similar to what happens in Lough Neagh.
“There is an algal bloom on the Quoile every year.
“That algae dies, sinks to the bottom and carpets the bottom of the river and suffocates it and then there are no plants that grow, apart from algae.
“That sucks oxygen out of the water, that kills fish. The whole ecosystem of the river is going downhill every year and it needs to be cleaned.”
Another issue that he believes must be addressed is the blockages that happen on the river.
“There is a flood barrier from the 1930s that just catches debris. It needs to be removed.
“There are tunnels under the Belfast Road. They are blocked with debris.
“The debris was cleared but it was dumped beside the river and it got washed back in during the next flood.
“The waste needs to be removed to stop it from coming back.
“Reducing the nutrient load from the land is all well and good but you need to deal with what is there already.”
What Stephen also wants to see is the river being dredged.
He says this process would address the issue of flooding as well as pollution.
But the challenges to doing so are many.
Money is an issue, but there is also a school of thought that says that dredging might do more harm than good.
“There is a strong feeling that dredging the river, and increasing the capacity of the river, would address the problem of flooding, but some people would say that it won’t.
“We feel that the material needs removed from a pollution point of view.
“There are those who say that they don’t want to dredge because it is going to cause issues, but equally, how do you deal with that sort of material?
“We think there is no other way to deal with it (other than dredging) because there so much of it.
“The agencies are involved. But it is hard to pin down who is responsible.
“What we are trying to do is get a joined-up approach from the groups.
“They are saying that removing it is going to cause more problems.
“You can’t use impacting the environment as an excuse for impacting the environment.
“They are saying if they do something it will make it worse, but if they don’t do something it will make it worse.”
The Clean the Quoile group, which Stephen is part of, is doing work on social media to garner more support for the cause of addressing the issue of pollution.
That group is growing in numbers, partly because of the interest in the river that has happened following the Downpatrick flooding.
“We have formed a Trust and we will be trying to get local people to get involved.
“It is just about education and about getting the message out about what is happening on the river.
“We are only a fledgling organisation.
“We are trying to get the Quoile Countryside Centre open again and that is for educational purposes, teaching people about the river, about pollution and about conservation.
“We are hoping to try to get charity status also.
“It is crazy but a lot of local people don’t know what is going on with the river.
“The floods have brought the issue to the forefront of the agenda because it has impacted the town.”
He accepts that it is going to be a challenge to get the river cleaned but he emphasised the point that it is a pressing issue.
“Climate change is happening.
“The weather is getting wetter.
“I don’t see how people could say the flood won’t happen again.
“I have lived here all my life and it used to be a big deal when the Quoile River flooded.
“But now it isn’t a big deal anymore.”
But with the work of ‘Clean the Quoile’ they hope to make it a big deal again and help to get the public behind the campaign to save the stretch of waterway.