Irish Water has been ordered to pay €4,790 in a fine and costs concerning a “significant” fish kill it caused on a tributary of the River Shannon near Ballina in Co Tipperary last May.
At Killaloe District Court, Irish Water pleaded guilty on Tuesday to allowing deleterious matter to go into the Ballcorrigan stream in the townland of Ballina on May 17th last.
Imposing a fine of €2,500 and agreed costs of €2,290, Judge Patrick Durcan said that the fish kill “was significant bearing in mind the capacity of this river”.
Judge Durcan said: “This is a very serious matter because one of the country’s most important natural resources are our rivers. There was a serious lack of procedures in place on the day and a serious lack of professional vigilance on the circumstances around what occurred and that causes me grave concern.”
Senior Fisheries Environmental Official with Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), Michael Fitzsimmons told the court that around 100 fish were killed in the incident including some brown trout and small number of juvenile salmon.
Mr Fitzsimmons said that the fish were killed as a result of a discharge from the main Irish Water waste water treatment plant serving the towns of Killaloe and Ballina.
Mr Fitzsimmons said that the discharge took place during maintenance works at the plant.
The IFI official visited the scene on the date and told the court that the maintenance works were part of a work practice taking place at the plant over the past 20 years and stated that this probably caused other fish mortalities over the years but he could not prove that.
He said: “The procedures that were in place 20 years are not okay for today.”
Mr Fitzsimmon said that the fish kill took place during May last year when there was a low flow and the juvenile fish could not survive the discharge.
He said: “The bottom line is that the material was discharged and there was no chance that the fish could have survived that.”
Mr Fitzsimmons said that the waste-water treatment plant was designed to cater for a population of 2,000 and there is now a population of ‘4,000 plus’ in the catchment area.
He said that there was no need to make such a discharge during maintenance works.
Counsel for Irish Water, Eoghan Cole BL said that Irish Water wishes to apologise for the consequences of the incident.
He said: “What happened here was human error derived from practises that were in place before Irish Water had anything to do with the plant. Steps have been taken to prevent a re-occurrence.”
Mr Cole said: “Irish Water is responsible for the plant since 2015 and before that it was Tipperary Co Council so Irish Water kept on the local personnel.”
He added: “There is extremely good co-operation and relationship in place with the IFI
Judge Durcan said: “It is easy to say that it was done to human error but particular methodology was put in place for maintaining the plant and directions were given to the people who carried out the maintenance.”
In response, Mr Cole said: “Human error was across the board in failing to identify what should have been done as opposed to what was being done.”
