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A Co Antrim construction sector business has been fined a total of £3,000 - plus £109 court costs - for making a polluting discharge to a waterway - not once, but three times.
The case was heard at Ballymena Magistrates' Court last week and saw W & J Taggart (Quarries) Limited, of Corkey Road, Loughgiel, Ballymena, fined.
The case came to light on 14 October 2008, when an official from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) visited W & J Taggart (Quarries) Limited and observed what appeared to be a polluting discharge coming from the quarry and entering the adjacent waterway, a tributary of the Killagan Water.
The site was revisited on 12 February 2009 by an official from NIEA who observed what appeared to be a polluting discharge from the quarry entering the adjacent waterway.
On inspection they observed the waterway to be polluted.
On 8 July 2009, NIEA carried out a further visit to the site and observed that a discharge from the quarry appeared to be polluting in nature. It was observed that the waterway was polluted for some 500 metres.
Samples taken on each of the above dates confirmed that the discharge contained poisonous, noxious or polluting matter which was potentially harmful to fish life in the receiving waterway.
Therefore W & J Taggart (Quarries) Limited was charged under Article 7 (1) (a) of the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 and fined £1,000 on each of the above dates with the offence of making a polluting discharge to a waterway.
(BMcC)
