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NI Water fined £13K for causing a polluting discharge

NI Water has been convicted and fined a total of £13,000 at Newtownards Magistrates' Court for causing a polluting discharge.

On a total of five dates, from March 2014 to July 2015, there was a discharge of sewage effluent from the NI Water’s wastewater treatment works at Moneyrea, Co Down.

On 14 March 2014, a water quality inspector, acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA), observed a discharge of sewage to the Blackwater River, Co Down. The river was severely impacted for several hundred metres downstream of the discharge.

Further investigation traced the source of the discharge to the Moneyrea treatment works. 

On four further occasions over the next 16 months, the NIEA found this discharge to be recurring. Samples taken at the time of these incidents confirmed that the discharge contained poisonous, noxious or polluting matter that was potentially harmful to fish life in the receiving waterway.

This article first appeared on wwtonline