NI Water fined £80,000 for pollution offences

by Gráinne Connolly

Northern Ireland Water has been fined a total of £80,000 at Downpatrick Crown Court for three serious water pollution offences, including an incident which caused a major fish kill in Co.Down. 

The fines were handed down after the company entered early guilty pleas on 21 June. 

They agreed to pay almost £13,000 in fishery remediation costs. 

The sentences were linked to three pollution incidents, with the first being in respect of a discharge from Annsborough Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTW) in October 2016 into the Carrigs River. 

After investigations, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) found there were a minimum of 1,928 fish mortalities counted including 23 salmon and 1,905 trout. 

A report, carried out by the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), on the impact on the Carrigs River fishery was also presented to the court.

It stated: “The 2016 spawning stock of mature anadromous salmonids was severely impacted, this may reduce fry recruitment success in the Carrigs River in 2017 and consequential adult returns in subsequent years.”         

NI Water was fined £20,000 in respect of this incident and agreed to pay £12,718.36 in remediation costs to NIEA to facilitate fishery improvement works on the Carrigs River.

Two fines were also imposed regarding incidents in January and March 2017, where the Blackwater River was polluted. 

They were related to breaches of the Water (NI) Order 1999 Consent held by NIWL in respect of Killinchy WwTW in Co Down.

On 25 January 2017, NIEA Water Quality Inspectors investigated a report of water pollution impacting the River Blackwater at Killinchy where they observed the river to be significantly impacted by sewage fungus.

The Inspectors found that the final treated effluent discharging from the works was of visibly poor quality.

Consequently, a sample of the discharge was collected which was found to contain poisonous, noxious or polluting matter which would have been harmful to fish life in the receiving waterway.

Meanwhile, on 30 March 2017, NIEA Water Quality Inspectors carried out a routine assessment of the water quality in the Blackwater River at Ballymartin Road, Killinchy and discovered the river bed was impacted by an extensive growth of sewage fungus over a 1.5km reach. 

The impact on the river was traced upstream to the discharge from Killinchy WwTW. 

As in January, a sample of the discharge from the works was collected. Again from analysis, the sample taken was found to contain poisonous, noxious or polluting matter which would have been harmful to fish life.

Under the Water (NI) Order 1999, NI Water is permitted to make discharges under certain conditions in respect of Killinchy WwTW. 

However, the court found the company had breached the conditions of that consent in both January and March 2017 and it imposed fines of £30,000 for each incident.