NIW Fined £300 For Pollution Offence

Northern Ireland Water (NIW) has been fined £300 for a pollution offence.

The firm pleaded guilty to a charge of making a polluting discharge from the Ros-Na-Rig Wastewater Pumping Station (WWPS), Mullaghboy, at Ballymena Magistrates Court.

It was also ordered to pay £28 court costs.

On 27 August 2013, a Senior Water Quality Inspector, acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, inspected a waterway at Lunnon Road, Islandmagee and observed the waterway to be cloudy with grey fungal growth and also detected a sewage smell.


NIW adopted the pumping station in January 2013 however an application for a Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 consent to discharge from the pumping station was not received until 3 February 2014. The length of waterway affected by the discharge was in excess of 150 metres.

A sample taken at the time of the incident confirmed that the discharge contained poisonous, noxious or polluting matter.

(CD/JP)