A Co Down farmer was fined £250 plus court costs at Newry Magistrates' Court.

Mr Seamus McAteer, Valley Road, Banbridge, Co. Down, was fined under Article 7(1)(a) of the Water (NI) Order 1999 for making a polluting discharge to a waterway.

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On 3 March 2011, following a water pollution report, NIEA found an unnamed tributary of the River Lagan to be heavily polluted with a fungal growth and to be running brownish in colour. The source of the polluting discharge was traced to a farm owned by Mr McAteer.

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.

(CD/GK)