A Co Antrim farmer was fined £400 plus £254 costs at Antrim Magistrates’ Court today.
Mr Ian Russell, of Printshop Road, Templepatrick, Co. Antrim, was fined for making a polluting discharge to a waterway.
On 21 February 2008, a Water Quality Inspector, acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, (formerly the Environment and Heritage Service), observed a heavy fungal growth on the bed of the Clady Water caused by farm effluent. The source of the polluting discharge was traced to a farm owned by Mr Russell.
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 the receiving watercourse.
Notes to Editors:
- Mr Russell 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, an unnamed tributary of the Clady Water.
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