Kelda Water Services (Alpha) Limited, trading as Kelda Water Services, was fined £500 plus £28 court costs at Coleraine Magistrates' Court today to making a polluting discharge from the Ballinrees Water Treatment Works (WTW) Coleraine.
On 5 November 2011, a Water Quality Inspector ,acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, observed the water in the Articlave River at Articlave village to be discoloured with a white contaminant. The discolouration was traced upstream, via an unnamed tributary of the river, to Ballinrees WTW. The discolouration was still evident in the waterway adjacent to the WTW on 7 November 2011.
It was determined that the source of the discolouration in the river was a spill of aluminium sulphate within the Ballinrees WTW site. The chemical had leaked through a fracture in a discharge pipe, and subsequently escaped the bunding and entered the waterway. Some 5 km of the waterway was affected by the discharge, which was determined by laboratory analysis to contain poisonous, noxious or polluting material which would have been potentially harmful to fish life in the receiving waterway.
Notes to editors:
1. Kelda Water Services (Alpha) Ltd, trading as Kelda Water Services, was charged under Article 7 (1) of the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 with the offence of making a polluting discharge.
2. For media enquiries please contact DOE Press Office 028 9025 6058 or out of office hours, contact the EIS Duty Press Officer on pager 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.
On 5 November 2011, a Water Quality Inspector ,acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, observed the water in the Articlave River at Articlave village to be discoloured with a white contaminant. The discolouration was traced upstream, via an unnamed tributary of the river, to Ballinrees WTW. The discolouration was still evident in the waterway adjacent to the WTW on 7 November 2011.
It was determined that the source of the discolouration in the river was a spill of aluminium sulphate within the Ballinrees WTW site. The chemical had leaked through a fracture in a discharge pipe, and subsequently escaped the bunding and entered the waterway. Some 5 km of the waterway was affected by the discharge, which was determined by laboratory analysis to contain poisonous, noxious or polluting material which would have been potentially harmful to fish life in the receiving waterway.
Notes to editors:
1. Kelda Water Services (Alpha) Ltd, trading as Kelda Water Services, was charged under Article 7 (1) of the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 with the offence of making a polluting discharge.
2. For media enquiries please contact DOE Press Office 028 9025 6058 or out of office hours, contact the EIS Duty Press Officer on pager 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.
Story by DOE
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