One of Northern Ireland’s major waste recycling companies has been fined £8,000 following a serious water pollution incident in Co Armagh last year.

Natural World Products were issued the fine following an incident where a stream flowing into a public reservoir was seriously polluted.

The DOE’s Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) investigated a report of pollution on a stream flowing into Clay Lake, a public drinking water reservoir, last December. The stream was found to be seriously contaminated, and this pollution was traced upstream to the premises of Natural World Products.

An investigation of Natural World Products’ premises revealed that large quantities of waste material were being stored alongside the stream, and liquid effluent from this waste was draining through a concrete pipe directly into the stream.

Elsewhere, a Portadown firm has been fined £1,500 for polluting a local stream with lead.

Clearway Disposals Ltd pleaded guilty to discharging excessive amounts of lead to Ballybay River from their premises at Dobbin Road in the town.

Craigavon Magistrates Court heard how investigators from the DoE’s Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) traced a pollution incident in the river to a discoloured discharge from the firm's premises.

Samples of liquid were collected at two discharge points from the premises into the adjacent stream, with laboratory analysis subsequently showing that both samples were polluted with lead.

The level of lead in one sample was found to be 15 times higher than the maximum safe level laid down by the World Health Organisation, while the other sample had a level three times higher than the maximum safe level.

It is the third time the company has been found guilty of pollution offences. The firm was fined £2,500 in July 1996 and then £1,000 in February 2002 for similar offences.

(MB)