NI Water fined £80k over river pollution

NI Water fined £80k over river pollution

26 September 2018

NORTHERN Ireland Water has been fined a total of £80,000 after admitting polluting two local rivers, killing thousands of fish.

The company was fined £20,000 following an incident in October 2016 when chemicals were washed into the Carrigs River near Dundrum with the source traced to a sewage treatment plant in Annsborough.

Two further fines totalling £60,000 were imposed on NI Water when “sewage fungus” was spotted on a discharge pipe at a sewage treatment plant at the Blackwater River in Killinchy in January and March last year.

The fines were imposed at Downpatrick Crown Court last week by Jude Piers Grant when the company also agreed to pay almost £13,000 in fishery remediation costs.

The chemical spill which killed several thousand sea trout and salmon during the spawning season along a four and a half mile stretch of the Carrigs River — one of the district’s most popular fishing locations — was described at the time by anglers as “an environmental disaster”.

They also feared the pollution incident had caused major damage to the river’s delicate ecology and that it could take the waterway and fish stocks years to recover.

A subsequent investigation revealed a chemical which leaked from the treatment plant in Annsborough was washed into a nearby waterway which flows into the Carrigs River.

A report prepared by the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute on the impact on the Carrigs River fishery presented at last week’s hearing also backed anglers’ fears that the pollution incident may impact on adult fish returning the to the river in future years.

It was also revealed that as part of further investigations, a sample taken of a white material from the outfall pipe at the Annsborough treatment plant was identified as a polyelectrolyte.

This was shown to have had a very high chemical oxygen demand along with elevated levels of aluminium, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, nickel, lead and zinc which indicated the sample contained poisonous, noxious or polluting matter which would have been harmful to fish life.

The fines on NI Water were issued by Judge Piers Grant at Downpatrick Crown Court on Wednesday of last week when it was revealed a minimum of 2,000 fish were killed in the Carrigs River.

At an earlier court hearing, NI Water pleaded guilty to offences of causing polluting matter to be discharged into a river and two of breaching conditions of water sewage legislation.

Judge Grant said samples taken from the Blackwater River in Killinchy, parts of which were “foul smelling”, showed about a mile of the waterway was affected in the March 2017 incident.

He told the court that while it was to the credit of NI Water that they had pleaded guilty to each of the three offences across the two indictments and had taken significant remedial work to prevent any further incidents, “regrettably and unfortunately the defendant company have a number of previous convictions of a similar type” stretching back to 2009.

The judge added that while the carcasses of 1,905 trout and 23 salmon were recovered from the Carrigs River, “clearly that’s the minimum loss of life because its almost impossible, in these circumstances, to trace every carcass and every fish killed.”

Environment Agency investigations uncovered the pollutant materials had found their into the river when a chemical spillage at the Annsborough plant had been power hosed away.

Turning to the second indictment, Judge Grant described how an off duty Environment Agency official spotted “coloured discharge” in the Blackwater River and reported the matter.

“Emergency measures were taken” and investigators noted a “foul smell” with a significant amount of “sewage fungus” with samples taken indicating that there were materials which would be harmful to fish life, the court heard.

During last week’s hearing, Judge Grant noted defence requests to keep in mind that NI Water was not a commercial operation and that any financial penalty might take away from “additional necessary resources”.

He said it was clear that NIW Water is a “well-resourced organisation” and while it may well be that profits are handed back to government, “that doesn’t prevent the defendant company from taking proper and reasonable steps.”

Following the hearing, the Environment Agency said the fines sent out a very clear message message that those who polluters rivers, Iakes and marine environment will be dealt with rigorously. 

“The incidents for which these fines were imposed were serious in nature and NIEA responded with necessary and proportionate enforcement action,” said a statement, adding: “Good water quality is a priority for NIEA and we will continue to work closely with NI Water and others to examine the causes of such pollution incidents in order to minimise the risk of recurrence.”