Bready slurry discharge earns £2k fine

A BREADY farmer was fined £2,000 plus £57 court costs at Strabane Magistrates' Court on October 28, 2010 for a pollution incident involving the discharge of slurry into a local stream.

Mr David Thompson of Keery Road, Bready, pleaded guilty to a charge of a making a polluting discharge to a waterway.

On 18 December 2008, Water Quality Inspectors, acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (formerly the Environment and Heritage Service), found a stream at Dunnalong Road, Magheramason was badly discoloured for almost 800 metres, covered with foam and smelled strongly of slurry.

The source of this pollution was traced to a nearby field rented by and under the control of Mr Thompson. The field had very recently been heavily spread with slurry and rain was washing the slurry into the stream.

Samples taken at the time of the incident confirmed that the effluent was polluting and potentially harmful to fish life.