Sixmilecross farmer fined £1,000 for pollution offence

A Co Tyrone farmer was fined £1,000 plus £52 court costs at Omagh Magistrates’ Court today for a pollution offence.

Mr Jonathan Sawyers of Altamuskin Road, Sixmilecross, was fined with making a polluting discharge so that it entered a waterway, namely an unnamed tributary of the Cloghfin River.

On 12 February 2008, a Water Quality Inspector, acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (formally the Environment and Heritage Service), observed the tributary to be dark in colour, foaming and with a strong smell of effluent. The source of the polluting discharge was traced to farm premises owned by Mr Sawyers.

Analysis of a sample taken at the time of the incident confirmed the waterway was grossly polluted, containing poisonous, noxious and polluting matter and would not have been capable of supporting fish life at the time of sampling.

Notes to Editors:

1. Mr Sawyers was charged under Article 7 (1) (a) of the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999.
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.