Tarmac blockage cause of pollution incident Ballybannon River
18 December 2024 12:18
NI Water was fined £1,000, plus £15 offender levy for a pollution incident from Mill Hill Storm Overflow to Ballybannon River, Annsborough on evening of 21 July/ early morning of 22nd July 2021.
In a statement, an NI Water spokesperson said: “This pollution incident is an example of the damage that can be caused when the sewer system is misused and treated as a dumping ground for unwanted waste and building materials. A large chunk of tarmac was found to be blocking the sewer, which, combined with a build-up of sanitary items and baby wipes, caused the storm overflow at Mill Hill to spill on two occasions over the evening of the 21st July and morning of 22nd July 2021.
“NI Water takes its responsibility to the environment with the utmost seriousness and reacted immediately to an alarm that was triggered just before 10:00pm on the evening of 21st July 2021.
“A team arrived on site that night and carried out a jetting exercise to clear a blockage of the storm overflow located on Mill Hill Road. The team believed the blockage was cleared as the storm overflow had ceased discharging by 11:15pm and the inlet flow to Annsborough Wastewater Treatment Works was returning to normal.
“NI Water was then alerted at 11:00 am on 22nd July that the storm overflow was spilling. Staff responded immediately, and, with the use of heavy machinery, including a jetvac machine and jetter, the blockage was cleared and the pollution was stopped shortly after 1:00pm. CCTV footage of the storm overflow identified a large piece of tarmac and rags (baby wipes, sanitary items) as the source of the blockage.
“NI Water carries out a review of every incident of pollution from its assets to ensure lessons are learned and recommendations are implemented across our assets where appropriate. Ultimately the root cause of the incident was due to the presence of the large piece of tarmac in the sewer, interfering with the free flow of wastewater. NI Water would like to take this opportunity to highlight the environmental harm misuse of the sewer network can have.
“NI Water treats 340 million litres of wastewater every day through a network which comprises over 15,000 kilometres of pipes and more than 1,000 wastewater treatment works.
“The extent and size of the network we operate means there is a risk of pollution incidents occurring. For this reason, the company is set stringent targets by the Utility Regulator to reduce pollution incidents. Whilst these targets have been consistently met since 2008, on those rare instances when an incident does arise, it is a matter of the utmost regret.
ENDS
Media enquiries to press.office@niwater.com