A Co Armagh farmer was fined £750 plus analysis costs of £132.74 and £45 court costs at Newry Magistrates’ Court for a pollution offence.
Mr Peter McSherry of Lurgana Road, Whitecross, was fined on 1 December 2008 with making a polluting discharge so that it entered a waterway, namely the Creggan River, a tributary of the Cusher River.
On 30 May 2007 Water Quality Inspectors, acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (formally the Environment and Heritage Service), observed the river to be green in colour and smelling heavily of slurry. The source of the polluting discharge was traced to farm premises owned by Mr McSherry.
Analysis of 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 a receiving watercourse.
Notes to Editors:
- Mr McSherry was charged under Article 7 (1) (a) of the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999.
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