Three State agencies investigating fish kill at Ballina, Co Tipperary

Three State agencies are investigating a fish kill on a tributary of the Shannon, river, near Ballina in Co Tipperary.

Inland Fisheries Ireland said it received reports of a dead fish floating in Ballycorrigan stream near the confluence with the Shannon.

An Inland Fisheries investigation revealed the presence of about 100 brown trout of various age groups, as well as a small number of juvenile salmon and a single stone leach.

Inland Fisheries Ireland said the dead fish were all discovered in a 100-metre stretch of water downstream of the Ballina Waste water Treatment Plant discharge pipe. Live fish were noted upstream of the discharge pipe.

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Investigations have indicated maintenance works carried out during the day in the Ballina waste water treatment plant “may have caused a deleterious or polluting effluent to discharge to this stretch of river causing the observed fish mortality”, the fisheries organisation said.

Irish Water said a full investigation was underway and it was “not in a position to provide a comment until this process has concluded”. The organisation said it was in contact with Inland Fisheries Ireland and the EPA on the issue.

A spokeswoman for the EPA said all Irish water plants were subject to licences issued by the authority and breaches of conditions of the licences could ultimately lead to prosecution.