Co Tyrone business fined for water pollution offence

A County Tyrone business has been fined £5,000 after they were found to have polluted a tributary of the Owenreagh river.

Hillside Dairy Farms Ltd, Camderry Road, Dromore Levy appeared before Omagh Magistrates’ Court yesterday where they were fined for polluting a waterway impacted which is an unnamed tributary of the Owenreagh River. The waterway was impacted for a distance of 1km.

Hillside Dairy Farms Ltd was fined and charged under Article 7(1)(a) of the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 for the offence of making a polluting discharge to a waterway on 21 October 2022 and under Article 7(2) of the same Order for making a discharge of trade or sewage effluent into a waterway between 4 November 2022 and 25 January 2023.

The Court heard that on 21 October 2022 Water Quality Inspectors (WQIs) acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) responded to a report of pollution. Inspectors examined the waterway where it crossed the Kildrum Road, Dromore. Sewage fungus was observed covering the bed of the waterway; the pollution was traced to a discharge from the direction of Hillside Farm. On the farm the Inspectors discovered that effluent with the appearance of silage effluent was discharging to the waterway via a storm manhole on the farm. During the follow up visits in November 2022, the waterway was observed to be grossly polluted, this continued until the necessary repairs were made to the diverter system on the farm, this work was completed during January 2023.

A tripartite statutory was collected on 21 October 2022. The sample was dark in colour and had an odour of silage effluent. The sample was analysed and found to contain poisonous, noxious or polluting matter which was potentially harmful to fish life in the receiving waterway. Effluents of this nature enrich fungus coverage on the bed of the watercourse which may lead to the destruction of fish spawning sites, as well as starving river invertebrates, on which fish feed, of oxygen.

Anyone wishing to report a pollution incident can call the 24 hour Incident Hotline on: 0800 80 70 60.