A farmer from County Tyrone has been fined a total of £4,622 for a series of pollution offences. Mr Ernest Buchanan of Drumclamph Road, Castlederg pleaded guilty at Strabene Magistrates Court for the incidents which occurred last year. The first was detected on 7 June 2005, when an officer from the Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) traced pollution in a stream back to a farm belonging to Mr Buchanan, who was then advised to take steps to stop it. A further visit to the farm on 28 June found that while the initial problem had ceased, effluent was now escaping from a cattle house into the stream. A third and final visit in July of the same year discovered yet more pollution, this time leaking from a slurry lagoon across the road and into a nearby waterway.
Analysis of the samples taken during the investigation from the three separate incidents confirmed the serious nature of the pollution.
