Annsborough River: Cracked pipe caused chemical leak that killed fish

More than 1,600 fish were killed after a chemical leaked into Annsborough River, near Newcastle, on Saturday

A cracked pipe in a water treatment works caused the chemical leak that killed 1,600 fish in a County Down river, Northern Ireland Water has said.

NI Water has offered to restock the Annsborough River, near Newcastle, after the fish kill on Saturday.

Its head of environmental regulation, Angela Halpenny, said her company was "extremely sorry to learn of this very unfortunate incident".

Angler Ed Kilgore said local clubs had been "robbed of this season's fishing".

'Sludge'

The Shinma Angling Club committee member said it was "horrible to see so many fish dead".

Mr Kilgore expressed fears that despite plans to restock, fishing and the health of the river could be affected "for the next three years".

Ms Halpenny told the BBC that an accidental spillage of a chemical leaked from a damaged pipe.

The chemical, a polyelectrolyte, is used to thicken a sludge by-product created during water treatment.

"At this stage in the investigation, the indications would point towards a crack in the pipe is the primary root cause of the incident," she said.

Several agencies are investigating the pollution incident

"We operate a significant number of assets and from time to time there are breakdowns and things will go wrong.

"It's very important that we have an on-call management to respond quickly to those incidents and deal with it to avoid pollution happening.

"The severity of this incident is very unusual for our company. We truly regret the outcome and the number of fish that have been killed.

"We will work very closely with all our regulators, our stakeholders, the Ulster anglers and the local angling clubs to make good the impact on the river and work with them to restock it with fish."

Annsborough River is a tributary of the Carrigs River, which runs from Castlewellan into Dundrum Bay