Mid Ulster slurry pollution incident was 'self-reported'

A slurry spill on a County Derry river at the end of that month was 'self-reported', a Council official has said.

The spill, which occurred on March 27 along the Ballinderry River, was described as a 'major slurry spill' and affected an 18-mile stretch of the river leading to where it joins Lough Neagh.

A spokesperson for the Ballinderry Rivers Trust said it would take 'many years' for the river to recover from the setback.

At last week's meeting of Mid Ulster District Council's Development Committee, Cllr John McNamee asked for an update on proceedings following the spill.

"Something more has to be done," he said.

"We do need to have tighter regulations to deal with this and stiffer penalties. It's a common story every other month, every other year, polluting of rivers and the whole environment completely wiped out."

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A local Rivers Trust said a DAERA investigation was underway.

Responding to requests from an update, a Council official said they had reached out to the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), who are dealing with the incident.

"We are aware of the incident. This one falls outside of the jurisdiction of Environmental Health but we have reached out to DAERA," they said.

"This is following their due process at the minute. It was an incident that was self-reported by the individual at the time of the event.

"NIEA and the Department believe they have secured the identity of the individual and are following their due process.

"While the investigation is ongoing, it would be inappropriate of us or any other officers to make comment at this stage.

"However, we have stressed with utmost importance to the Department for us to be kept engaged in every step of the process to enable us to bring a full and comprehensive update to members."

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