Northern Ireland Water has been fined £4,500 plus court costs for making a polluting discharge from a water treatment works and a sewage pumping station.

The water company was fined £4,000 plus £26 court costs for releasing polluted water from Fofanny Water Treatment Works (WTW) in September 2009.

It was also fined £500 plus costs of £25 for contravening the Environment Department’s Consent conditions at Crossgar Road Sewage Pumping Station (SPS), Saintfield on 14 June 2009.

In the first incident, a Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) investigation revealed that a High Severity water pollution incident had occurred and that there had been a Major Fishkill. The source of the polluting discharge was traced to Fofanny WTW which is owned and operated by NI Water.

The Shima River and its corridor is an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) with the river being a high importance fishery and nursery habitat for salmon and sea trout. The river eventually flows through high amenity riverside and beach areas in Newcastle.

Samples of the discharge taken on 21 and 22 September 2009 confirmed that the river contained poisonous, noxious or polluting matter which was potentially harmful to fish life in the receiving waterway.

On 14 June 2009, NIEA observed a tributary of the Carsons Dam River at Sainfield to be visibly polluted with untreated sewage. The bed of the waterway was observed to have significant coating of sewage fungus with the source traced to Crossgar Road Sewage Pumping Station (SPS), Saintfield which is owned and operated by NIWL.

NIEA contended in Court that Northern Ireland Water Ltd had failed to respond to a telemetry alarm raised at the SPS for an unacceptable period of time thus contravening the Department’s consent conditions.