County Antrim business fined for polluting discharge to a waterway

A Co Antrim business was fined £5,000 plus £253 costs at Antrim Magistrates’ Court today.

S D C Trailers Ltd, of Deerpark Road, Toomebridge, Co Antrim, was fined for making a polluting discharge to a waterway.

On 23 April 2007, Water Quality Inspectors, acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (formerly the Environment and Heritage Service) observed a large quantity of red diesel in the Sluggan Burn. The source of the polluting discharge was traced to the premises of S D C Trailers Ltd.

A sample taken at the time of the incident confirmed that the discharge contained poisonous, noxious and polluting matter which would have been potentially harmful to fish life in the receiving waterway. In particular, diesel oil taints fish flesh and can have a toxic effect on fish and invertebrate life in the waterway.

This was a serious polluting discharge that visibly polluted approximately 1.5 miles of the Sluggan Burn which is an area designated as a Ramsar site, an area of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Protected Area. Lough Beg, which the Sluggan Burn enters, and its associated aquatic vegetation, form part of the internationally important Lough Neagh Ramsar site for wintering wildfowl.

Notes to Editors:

1. S D C Trailers Ltd was charged under Article 7 (1) (a) of the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 with the offence of making a polluting discharge to a waterway, namely Sluggan Burn a tributary of Lough Beg.

2. For media enquiries please contact DOE Press Office 028 9054 0014 or out of office hours, contact the EIS Duty Press Officer on pager 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.