NI Water is fined £1,000 for pollution incident

Northern Ireland Water was fined £1,000 in relation to the incident

Northern Ireland Water has been convicted of causing water pollution at Mallusk, County Antrim.

It was fined £1,000 for the incident at a waste water pumping station on Blackwater Road. NI Water was also given a £15 offenders' levy.

Belfast Magistrates' Court heard that a water quality inspector attended an incident affecting the Ballymartin Water on 24 August 2015.

The following day, they returned to continue their investigation.

In a statement made under caution, NI Water said "a discharge occurred as a result of a failure of the second of two pumps at Hydepark number two waste water pumping station on 23 August 2015".

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency's investigation found that a second standby pump had not been available at the pumping station for a number of weeks prior to the incident.

If available, the second standby pump would have come into operation following the failure of the duty pump "thereby preventing discharge from the station".

This situation contravened the conditions of a Water (NI) Order 1999 Consent to Discharge issued by the department in respect of the installation.