Cookstown businessman fined £2,000 for polluting discharge to a waterway

A Co Tyrone businessman was fined £2,000 plus £25 court costs today for making a polluting discharge to a waterway.

Desmond Loughran, trading as Loughdoo Aggregates, Loughdoo Road, Cookstown, was fined at Dungannon Magistrates’ Court.

On 29 February 2008, a Water Quality Inspector, acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (formerly the Environment and Heritage Service) observed an unnamed tributary of the Ballinderry River to be discoloured. The source of the polluting discharge was traced to the Crockanawark site of Loughdoo Aggregates owned by Mr Loughran.

A sample taken at the time of the incident confirmed that the discharge contained polluting matter which would have been potentially harmful to fish life in the receiving watercourse.

The Ballinderry River has been designated an area of special scientific interest and discharges of this type are not sustainable in terms of the aquatic environment.

Notes To Editors:

1. Mr Loughran 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 an unnamed tributary of the Ballinderry River.

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.