A farmer from Co. Fermanagh has been convicted at Enniskillen Magistrates' Court for water pollution offences that caused fish kill.
Rodney Elliot (48), who is from Enniskillen, pleaded guilty and was fined a total of £2,500, a £15 offenders Levy plus fish kill costs of £267.50.
The court heard that on June 26, 2018, a senior water quality inspector (SWQI) and a water quality inspector (WQI) colleague, acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA), responded to a report of slurry in a waterway close to Florencecourt.
The inspectors entered the farm premises, where they discovered that slurry from the farm premises had flowed down the Druminiskill road and entered a roadside drain which discharged to a nearby waterway.
Inland Fisheries colleagues carried out a fish kill survey. They found the fish kill to be confined to the polluted tributary and no dead fish were observed in the main Arney River.
The court were then told that on August 20, 2018, inspectors responded to a further report of slurry in the Larganess River, close to Florencecourt.
On this occasion, they discovered a slurry tank was overflowing and the slurry was discharging to the waterway via roadside gullies.
No fish were killed as a result of this incident.
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 life in the receiving waterway.
Effluents of this nature enrich fungus coverage on the bed of the watercourse which may lead to the destruction of fish-spawning site, as well as starving river invertebrates on which fish feed, of oxygen, according to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.
