Irish water fined for fish kill in cavan town

Irish Water has been fined for a pollution incident that lead to a fish kill in Cavan Town. The case was taken by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) against Irish Water, which has an address at Colvill House, Talbot Street, Dublin 1, in relation to an incident on May 5 last year at Convent Bridge, where dead fish were discovered.
The company pleaded guilty and Judge Denis McLoughlin heard that, since the incident, €9.8 million had been spent on upgrading the Cavan plant.
The judge heard that on the Saturday of the May Bank Holiday weekend two dead fish were reported on the river bed at 6.15pm, near the discharge pipe at the plant.
The water was discoloured from “deleterious” materials and a large area of brown sludge was observed in the river.
Photos of the area around the effluent pipe were handed to the judge from an IFI inspector and the court heard that, in all, 39 dead trout were discovered.
A sample analysis showed that the pollution levels were four times the limit.

Sludge
A fault at the plant meant that there was a build-up of sludge at the facility that came out all at once.
The court heard that the plant in Cavan had no previous convictions for pollution offences but that there had been a conviction recorded in January for an incident in Monaghan.
Costs of the prosecution had been agreed at €2,972.93 - €870 of which went towards the sample analysis.
The plant had been working at “28% over capacity” and served 28,000 people but at the time only had capacity for 22,000.
The problem, Judge McLoughlin was told, was fixed the same day and upgrades were carried out and finalised in November of last year, making the plant capable of serving 30,000.
Irish Water was convicted and fined €1,000 for the incident, given three months to pay with costs granted.