Northern Ireland Water Ltd have been fined £5,000 for pollution offences after an inspector, acting on behalf of the Environment and Heritage Service (EHS), traced a discharge of untreated sewage to the Crumlin Sewerage Pumping Station.
In a statement, NI Water said, "The incident was due to a mechanical failure of the pumps and a lack of capacity in the alarm system. It happened within hours of NI Water taking over responsibility for water and sewerage services."
Further, NI Water stated that the incident resulted from under-investment in the water and wastewater infrastructure and that as their investment programme continues such incidents would become less common.
NI Water plans to invest about £1m per working day in new or upgraded water and wastewater infrastructure over the next three years.
Nonetheless, Friends of the Earth (FoE) claim that tonnes of untreated effluent is discharged into loughs, rivers and seas every day, which has resulted in the loss of blue flags at three of the country's beaches.
