Business fined £750 for pollution offence

The company, Parker Residential Limited, came before a hearing at the magistrates court in the city on Thursday, in an action brought on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.

In court Parker Residential Limited, with an address at Ferryquay Street, pleaded guilty to the charge that on January 16 last year polluting material was allowed to enter a tributary of the Foyle River.

The magistrates court heard that on January 16, 2014, Water Quality Inspectors, acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency inspected a tributary of the River Foyle at the entrance of St Colum’b’s Park.

There they observed silt on the bed of the waterway and went from there to the construction site at Clooney Park West, where they observed that the site was wet and muddy and a section of the roadway was flooded and used as a temporary wheel wash for vehicles.

The effluent was overflowing the roadway and running to a cracked concrete drain adjacent to the waterway. Around 400 metres of waterway was affected by the discharge.

The local court heard that a sample taken at the time of the incident, which confirmed the discharge contained poisonous, noxious or polluting matter that was potentially harmful to fish life in the receiving waterway.