Northern Ireland Water (NI Water) has been fined a record £40,000 for polluting a river in County Londonderry with raw sewage.
The Moyola River was found to be 142 times over an EU directive for poor water quality following the incident in Tobermore on 15 February 2017.
NI Water pleaded guilty at Londonderry Crown Court earlier this week and was sentenced today (7 June).
It is the first time a pollution case involving NI Water has been heard in the crown court. Until now, all pollution cases involving NI Water have been heard in the magistrates’ court where the maximum fine is £20,000.
A prosecution barrister described the spillage as a “serious breach which could have had potentially devasting consequences for the river life” and said the incident was entirely preventable.
Londonderry Crown Court was told a blocked pipe at Maghera treatment works at Fortwilliam Bridge caused raw sewage to spill into the neighbouring river.
In a statement following the court’s verdict, a NI Water spokesperson said: “NI Water views its responsibility to the environment with the utmost seriousness, having invested £500 million in the network over the last three years, helping make our rivers and beaches the cleanest that they have ever been.
“Unfortunately, on this occasion, we failed to maintain the highly exacting standards that we set ourselves and we have already begun the process of implementing lessons learnt.
“A full survey and investigation of the drainage system at this site has been conducted and remedial actions to mitigate the risk of such an occurrence arising in the future are being put in place.”
NI Water said it treats 340 million litres of wastewater every day through a network which comprises more than 15,000 kilometres of pipes and more than 1,000 wastewater treatment works.
The spokesperson added: “As a company, we place the highest possible priority on the protection of the environment to which we safely discharge treated water each and every day from our wastewater treatment plants.
“Like all water companies, however, we realise that the extent and size of the network we operate means there is a risk of pollution incidents of this nature occurring.
“For this reason, the company is set stringent targets by the Utility Regulator to reduce pollution incidents, and whilst these targets have been consistently met and exceeded since 2008 on those rare instances when an incident does arise it is a matter of the utmost regret to no one more than ourselves.”