Officers were alerted to the incident in Lowry’s Lake at Hamiltonsbawn at 9.05pm on 31 July. Officers were quickly on site and identified a significant amount of what appeared to be red diesel entering a fishery managed by Armagh Fisheries.
Agency staff and anglers worked until late in the evening deploying oil absorbent booms in a tributary feeding the lake in an attempt to stop more oil from entering the lake. Additional officers and anglers were back on site the following morning in order to deploy more complex booming to stop and capture the oil.
A specialist clean up company has been employed to remove the contained oil.
Following the incident, HM Revenue & Customs officers visited the site and identified a fuel laundering plant at a farm nearby.
A criminal investigation is proceeding with a view to prosecution.
An NIEA spokesperson said: “The agency was alerted to this incident by a call to the Water Pollution hotline. This enabled us to move quickly to minimise the polluting impact and identify the cause. We would again urge anyone who comes across a pollution incident to immediately contact the Water Pollution hotline on 0800 807060.”
Notes to Editors:
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