A Co Antrim farmer was fined £750 plus court costs of £24 at Ballymena Magistrates' Court yesterday. Mr Richard Millar of Drumfin Road, Ballymena, Co. Antrim, was fined for making a polluting discharge to a waterway.

On 15 June 2011, a Water Quality Inspector, acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency inspected an unnamed tributary of the Clogh River at Doury Road, Ballymena and observed a white coloured fungal growth was present on the bed of the waterway. Approximately 1.8 kilometres of waterway was affected by the discharge.

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The source of the polluting discharge was traced to a farm owned by Mr Millar.

A sample taken at the time of the incident confirmed that the discharge contained poisonous, noxious or polluting matter which was potentially harmful to fish life in the receiving waterway.

(PM)