Northern Ireland Water fined £80,000 for pollution offences

Northern Ireland Water has been fined a total of £80,000 at Downpatrick Crown Court for three water pollution offences including an incident which caused a major ‘fish kill’ and affected a 6km stretch of river.

It also agreed to pay almost £13,000 in fishery remediation costs.

The sentences were linked to three incidents. The first fine was in respect of a discharge of polyelectrolyte from Annsborough wastewater treatment works in 2016 which polluted the lower reaches of Carrigs River, Co Down and killed nearly 2,000 trout and salmon.

Two fines were also imposed following incidents in 2017 when the Blackwater River, also in Co Down, was polluted with sewage fungus due to treated effluent from the Killinchy wastewater treatment works which breached discharge consents.