James Joseph Heaney, 45, from L'Derry, has been sentenced to 240 hours community service for breaches of waste management legislation.

Mr Heaney was convicted on four waste counts and was given 240 hours community service on each charge, to run concurrently.

During July and November 2008, officers from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, (NIEA) investigated two sites operated by Mr Heaney at Pennyburn Industrial Estate and Campsie Real Estate in Londonderry where substantial quantities of waste tyres had been deposited. The tyres had been processed through a tyre 'crumbing' machine where the waste tyres were ground down and the casing wire separated.

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The two sites were abandoned in 2009 with around 20,000 tyres deposited at the Pennyburn site and approximately 385,500 tyres left at the Campsie site.

The two sites were subject to arson attacks. The Pennyburn site was set on fire on 18 August 2009, and the Campsie site on 4 October 2009, and the resulting fires were deemed 'major incidents'. An Eglinton primary school was forced to close during the Campsie fire, which took four days to bring under control and involved around 70 fire fighters and eight pumps, including one from Letterkenny, Co Donegal. Members of the public were advised to close all windows until the respective fires were brought under control.

Contaminated water run-off from the fire entered the storm water drainage system and a stream which bounds the eastern perimeter of the site. NIEA's Water Management Unit and the Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service placed pollution control measures into the storm water system and the stream to reduce potential impact on the stream and Lough Foyle, where the stream discharges.

(CD/JP)