A County Fermanagh farmer has been fined £5,000 plus £49 court costs for making a polluting discharge to a waterway.

Mr Cyril Loane of Gortnagullion, Kesh, pleaded guilty to the charge at Enniskillen Magistrates' Court yesterday (27 October 2008).

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On 7 December 2007 a Water Quality Inspector acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (formally the Environment and Heritage Service) found a polluting effluent entering a waterway from adjacent woodland where slurry had been spread.

A sample taken at the time of the incident confirmed that the discharge contained poisonous, noxious and polluting matter which would have been potentially harmful to fish life in the receiving watercourse.

(PR/JM)