Company fined after '˜moderate fishkill'

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The fine was imposed on Glen Water Limited, Bridge Place, Anchor Boulevard, Dartford, Kent at Armagh Magistrates’ Court on Friday for contravening the conditions of a discharge consent issued by the Department.

On 6 July 2014 following a report of dead fish and untreated sewage in the Tall River at Richhill, a Water Quality Inspector (WQI) discovered the waterway to be polluted.

The Inspector traced the pollutant upstream to Richhill Wastewater Treatment Works.

This was a serious polluting discharge that allowed untreated sewage to adversely impact more than 250 metres of the Tall River resulting in a Moderate ‘Fishkill’. In addition to the fine, Glen Water Ltd have also paid £1,599 costs in respect of the ‘fish kill’ which will be used by the local angling club for restoration and remediation works on the Tall River fishery.

This incident occurred due to the failure of one of the Uninterruptable Power Supplies (UPS) at the works which resulted in a mechanical failure at the works, and a failure of the power supply to the equipment responsible for sending out warning alarms to operational staff rendering the telemetry alarm systems non-operational.