Annsborough: Fish kill chemical storage 'inadequate'

Annsborough treatment works was the source of the pollution

A major fish kill in a County Down river happened because of inadequate protection to contain a chemical spill from a sewage treatment plant.

The chemical leaked from a cracked plastic pipe at Northern Ireland Water's Annsborough works earlier this month.

The company now says the spill got into the river because of "inadequate bunding" on site.

Bunding is a barrier around areas where potential pollutants are stored.

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

Officials told Stormont's Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday that similar plastic pipes were now being replaced with stainless steel ones.

A check on bunding at 14 other plants, where the same chemical was used, had shown it to be appropriate.

More than 1,600 fish were killed along several miles of the river near Castlewellan.

Committee chair William Humphrey asked whether lessons had been learned "from this debacle".

Water samples were collected from the river after the chemical spillage

NI Water's Chief Executive Sara Venning apologised for the incident said protecting the environment was a "core customer promise".

She said every year the company safely returned 1.3bn litres of waste water from more than 1,000 treatment plants into 2,500 rivers.

Several agencies are investigating the pollution incident

Last year, the company was responsible for 21 high or medium severity pollution incidents.

Ms Venning said some of these were as the result of blocked sewers caused by people flushing inappropriate items like nappies and wipes down toilets.