Northern Ireland Water Limited (NIW) was fined £10,000 at Armagh Magistrates Court last Friday after pleading guilty to a charge of making a polluting discharge from its Tandragee Wastewater Treatment Works in Co Armagh.

On 24 May 2012, a Water Quality Inspector, acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, carried out investigations following reports of dead fish in the Cusher River. Dead fish and a very high number of dead invertebrates were observed in a half-mile stretch of river immediately downstream of the discharge points of two pipes arising from the Tandragee WWTW.

At the time of the investigation the Inspector noted a discharge from one of the pipes which was accompanied by a smell of chlorine. A sample of the discharge was taken for laboratory analysis. The laboratory analysis showed the discharge to be polluting in nature.

NIW was charged under Article 7 (1) of the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 with the offence of making a polluting discharge to a waterway. The firm holds a consent to discharge under the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 which permits discharges to be made from the WWTW to the waterway only under specific conditions.