A Co Tyrone business, Augher Co-Op Agricultural and Dairy Society Limited, Crossowen Road, Augher was fined £1,400 with court costs of £19 at Dungannon Magistrates' Court.

The company pleaded guilty to making a polluting discharge to a waterway and to making a discharge of trade effluent into a waterway.

On 22 May 2012, a Water Quality Inspector, acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, noted an excessive and discoloured discharge emanating from the recognised sample point at the site of Augher Co-Op Agricultural and Dairy Society Limited’s food processing premises at Crossowen Road, Augher. This effluent was entering a tributary of the Blackwater River. A statutory sample of the discharge was taken.

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It was determined that the poor-quality of the effluent discharged had been due to equipment failure on site.

Laboratory analysis of the sample confirmed that it contained poisonous, noxious or polluting material, which would have been potentially harmful to fish life in the receiving waterway.

(CD/MH)