A Co Fermanagh farmer has been fined for making a polluting discharge to a water which caused a fish kill at Enniskillen Magistrates' Court.

Mr Mark Elliott, Currin, Ballinamallard, was fined £2,000, plus £1,599 fish restocking costs and an offenders levy of £15.

On 15 June 2014, a Water Quality Inspector acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) inspected an unnamed tributary of the Salry River at Currin and observed that it was very dark in colour and smelled strongly of agricultural effluent. At this location the Inspector observed a number of dead fish (trout and sticklebacks). Downstream the Inspector observed the waterway was contaminated and smelled strongly of silage effluent. The polluting discharge was traced to farm premises owned by Mr Elliott.

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The length of waterway impacted by the discharge was approximately two kilometres, with 41 trout; 125 sticklebacks; 64 crayfish and five eel mortalities.

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/MH)