A Co. Fermanagh farmer has been convicted of making a polluting discharge to a waterway and has been fined £750 plus £15 Offenders Levy.
37-year-old Kevin Leonard of Kesh Road, Irvinestown, pleaded guilty to the offence and was convicted yesterday (Tuesday, March 14) at Enniskillen Magistrates’ Court.
The court heard that on June 16, 2022, Water Quality Inspectors (WQIs) acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) responded to a report of farm effluent entering the Hollow River at Lisnarick, Irvinestown.
The inspectors attended the area and discovered silage effluent seeping from silage bales and flowing across the yard before entering the Hollow River via an overflow pipe on the farm.
The effluent impacted the Hollow River for approximately 1km. Leonard was fined and charged under Article 7(1)(a) of the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 as amended by the Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order, for the offence of making a polluting discharge to a waterway.
In accordance with procedures, a tripartite statutory sample of the active discharge was collected and analysed and found to contain poisonous, noxious or polluting matter which was potentially harmful to fish live in the receiving waterway.
The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) said that effluents of this nature enrich fungus coverage on the bed of the watercourse which may lead to the destruction of fish spawning sites, as well as starving both fish and river invertebrates of oxygen.
Effluents with high ammonia content like this case, DAERA said, are also directly toxic to fish life in receiving watercourses.