A Co Antrim business which tipped diesel into a river has been fined £5,000 (€5,523), it was revealed today.
SDC Trailers Ltd from Toomebridge, Co Antrim discharged the fuel into the Sluggan Burn, near Lough Neagh.
The pollutant contained poisonous and noxious matter potentially harmful to fish life in the waterway.
A spokesman for the Northern Ireland Environment Agency said: “This was a serious polluting discharge that visibly polluted approximately 1.5 miles of the Sluggan Burn which is an area designated as a Ramsar site, an area of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Protected Area.”
Lough Beg, which the Sluggan Burn enters, and its associated aquatic vegetation, form part of the internationally important Lough Neagh Ramsar site for wintering wildfowl.
The company was also forced to pay £253 costs at Antrim Magistrates’ Court today.
PA