The Department of Agriculture has ditched the requirement for farmers with uncovered outdoor slurry storage to roof their tanks by the end of next year.

An obligation to roof these topless stores by the end of 2027 appeared as an action in the Department’s Ag Climatise roadmap in 2020.

However, senior Department inspector Ted Massey has said that the requirement has since been dropped due to questions around the feasibility of retrofitting covers onto these existing roofless stores.

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Massey also suggested that the ammonia emissions reduction that would result from roofing these tanks – which was the reason for the measure's inclusion in the Department's climate roadmap – would prove relatively insignificant given that slurry forms a crust.

“That was something that was looked at as part of the 5th Nitrates Action Programme, the idea that should we require outdoor slurry stores to have a roof,” Massey commented on Friday’s Teagasc Signpost webinar.

“When we considered it in terms of ammonia emissions, the fact that the slurry will often form a crust means that the emissions benefit was going to be relatively low because the natural crust on top of the slurry will limit the gaseous losses.

“And then we also had to consider the fact that a lot of these outdoor unroofed stores were designed without the intention of a roof being fitted to them and structurally, with the risks associated with trying to retrofit a roof, the decision was made that the risks would outweigh the benefits.

“Essentially, in terms of starting to drill holes and weld on things onto them, it was felt that that could interfere with the integrity of the stores and it was better not to require them to be roofed. That is the decision that has been made.”

The Department’s 2020 Ag Climatise roadmap has stated that January 2022 would see the introduction of the requirement that “all newly constructed external slurry stores to be covered.”

It said that “in addition, all existing external slurry stores should be covered as soon as practically possible, but no later than 31 December 2027.”