Pomeroy farmer fined £1,500 for polluting local waterway

A POMEROY farmer has been fined after polluting a waterway near his home.

At Dungannon Magistrates Court, 62-year-old Harry Brown, of Lurganeden Road, Pomeroy, pleaded guilty to the offence.

The court heard that Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) Water Quality Inspectors responded to a water pollution incident that had occurred sometime between June 12 and June 13 last year.

The NIEA Inspectors discovered that dark grey coloured agricultural effluent was flowing along a ditch, alongside the Pomeroy Road, before discharging to the Claggan River, a tributary of the Ballinderry River which flows into Lough Neagh.

The inspectors traced the flow of effluent to farm premises at Lurganeden Road.

On the farm, Brown explained that he had been cleaning out one of the poultry houses.

A nearby wooded area was inspected and dark grey coloured agricultural effluent was observed to be actively flowing through that area, and then entering land drainage pipes, before discharge to the waterway.

As part of the investigation, a statutory sample of the discharge was collected and analysed.

The sample results indicated that the sample contained poisonous, noxious or polluting matter which would have been potentially harmful to aquatic life in a receiving waterway.

Brown pleaded guilty to the offence and was fined £1,500.