https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-68222304
A County Down farmer has been fined and ordered to pay compensation after a fish kill on the River Lagan in 2022.
Alan Wilson, 66, from Lurgan Road in Dromore, pleaded guilty at Craigavon Magistrates’ Court.
He was fined £750 and ordered to pay £960 in compensation to Stormont’s Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.
The court was told dead fish were confirmed in the River Lagan on the evening of 23 August 2022.
Investigators from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency took samples after observing dead fish in the waterway and on the riverbed.
Brown-coloured farm effluent was found to be discharging into the river from a black plastic pipe, smelling strongly of ammonia.
The contamination was caused by urea fertiliser – a concentrated nitrogen fertiliser – entering the River Lagan via storm drainage systems on Mr Wilson’s farm.
The affected stretch of the River Lagan was known for its wild brown trout.
At the time, local anglers said it had been a major fish kill and described the impact as “a terrible loss”.
by the_peter_green_god
7 comments
A whole £750 for polluting a river so badly it killed off all the fish? That’s hardly a deterrent is it? If I was an unscrupulous farmer I’d say the risk of polluting surrounding watercourses wouldn’t really matter if the potential fine is £750. Pathetic.
I think in cases such as this the polluter should have to put right the damage they have done as well as prevent it happening again.
In this case restocking the river.
£750 is nothing. I believe Edwin Poots, who is a farmer himself, capped the fines at 15% of the payments that farmers receive from DAERA. This would appear to be in Poots own interest.
https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2023/09/22/news/former_undertones_front_man_feargal_sharkey_hits_out_at_former_agriculture_edwin_poots-3636513/#:~:text=Mr%20Poots%20used%20a%20%22statutory,and%20Rural%20Affairs%20(DAERA).
That’s a pretty low penalty for by the sounds of it pretty intentionally fucking up an eco system. Is there a reasonable explanation for that pipe to exit into a river?
Cheaper polluting than actually handling it the correct way.
The fine should be £20k.
This happens year on year… washing out slurry tanks in rivers causing the death of fish etc. is so common from farmers here, fines are nowhere near enough.
Sould be a few zero’s added to that sum.
It’s always the farmers fucking up the environment and getting a wee slap on the wrist.
I always naively thought farmers would be the type to respect the environment as they actively use the land for animals and crops.
Turns out the majority of farmers are dodgy greedy cunts who only care about lining their pockets at the expense of the environmental issues the cause.