Northern Ireland Water Ltd (NI Water) was fined £3,000 plus £31 court costs at Newry Magistrates’ Court on Monday for pollution offences. Last week the company received fines totalling £3,500 for two separate offences – both for making a polluting discharge to a waterway.

On 28 July 2008, a Water Quality Inspector, acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, (formerly the Environment and Heritage Service) observed a discharge from a pipe to a tributary of Lough Ross at a bridge on Carran Road, Crossmaglen. The discharge appeared very cloudy and had the appearance of containing effluent from a drinking water plant; the visual impact on the receiving waterway was significant.

The source of the polluting discharge was traced to Carran Hill Water Treatment Works. This is the first case where a Water Treatment Works has caused pollution.

The results of the analysis show that the discharge contained suspended solids more than nine times the level permitted, the discharge contained poisonous, noxious and polluting matter which would have been potentially harmful to fish life in the receiving waterway. The receiving watercourse is a tributary of Lough Ross, Crossmaglen which is the drinking water abstraction source for the South Armagh area.

NI Water was convicted of making a polluting discharge and for making a discharge to a waterway in contravention of the Department’s consent conditions. NI Water was fined £1,500 for polluting a waterway and £1,500 for exceeding the conditions of their discharge consent plus £31 costs.