A JUDGE gave the ESB and Coillte three months yesterday to put in place a legally-binding programme to save a river destroyed in a wind-farm development.
Judge Kevin Kilrane was told that 6,000 fish, mainly trout, were lost when tonnes of peat swept through the Owengar river in Co Leitrim after a turbine-building project went wrong on September 23rd, 2008.
He was told at Manorhamilton District Court it would take a minimum of €500,000 over five years to restore the river leading into Lough Allen near Drumkeeran.
Garvagh Glebe Power, a consortium of the ESB and Coillte, which was building 13 huge turbines on Corrie mountain, pleaded guilty to two charges of pollution – permitting deleterious matter into the water.
Eamonn Cusack, chief executive of Shannon Regional Fisheries Board, which brought the prosecution, welcomed the judge’s decision. He said it was the first case won by the board relating to prosecutions of wind-farm operators.
Another prosecution was pending on the destruction of 8,000 fish in a tributary of the Feale in Co Kerry in 2008. There were 15,000 fish lost in Derrybrien, Co Galway, in 2003 which was successfully prosecuted by the local authority, although the Fisheries Board prosecution was struck out.
Fisheries officer Matt Nolan told yesterday’s court that it would take €500,000 over five years to restore the Owengar river and the fishing rights.