A farmer from L'Derry has been fined for a pollution offence at Limavady Magistrates' Court.

Mr Paul O'Kane was fined 1,500 as well as a £15 Offenders Levy for making a polluting discharge to a waterway.

On 26 June 2014, Water Quality Inspectors, acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency inspected the Gelvin River adjacent to the Gelvin Road. The bed of the waterway was covered in a grey fungal growth. The polluting discharge was traced to farm premises on the Gortnagross Road owned by Mr O'Kane. The Inspectors observed farm effluent flowing through a storm manhole on the farm; a dye test confirmed the effluent made its way to the waterway. The Inspector estimated that 750 metres of the waterway was impacted by this discharge.

-- Advertisement --

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/LM)