Cookstown farmer fined £950 for pollution offence

A Co. Tyrone farmer was fined £950 plus £28 court costs at Dungannon Magistrates’ Court today for polluting discharge to a waterway.

Mr David John Allen, Claggan Lane, Cookstown, pleaded guilty for causing the entry of nitrogen fertilizer into a waterway, namely a tributary of the Lissan Water.

On 21 May 2009, a Water Quality Inspector, acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, inspected the farmyard owned by Mr Allen. They found a manhole adjacent to cattle sheds which contained a diverter which appeared to be sending slurry, overflowing from the tank, in the direction of the river to the rear of the site.

This was a serious polluting incident that allowed an extremely polluting farm effluent to discharge into a tributary of which is an important salmonid waterway.

A sample taken at the time of the incident confirmed that the discharge contained poisonous, noxious and polluting matter which was potentially harmful to fish life in the receiving watercourse.

Notes to editors:

1. Mr Allen was charged with causing the entry of nitrogen fertilizer into a waterway of water contained in any underground strata contrary to Regulation 4 of the Nitrates Action Programme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006.
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.