A Co Antrim farmer was fined £400 plus £25 court costs at Coleraine Magistrates' Court.

Mr Jonathan Gamble, of Drumlee Road, Finvoy, Ballymoney, Co. Antrim, was fined for making a polluting discharge to a waterway.

On 23 May 2011, Water Quality Inspectors, acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency inspected the Slackwater Burn,a tributary of the Lower Bann River and observed heavy fungal growth on the bed of the waterway. The waterway was affected for approximately 1,500 metres. The source of the polluting discharge was traced to a farm owned by Mr Gamble.

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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)