Illegal Dumping at NI Water Site in Lisnarick Causes Concern

16 May 2014 10:13

NI Water is appealing for the assistance of the community after the illegal dumping of septic waste and sewage related debris in the sewage network caused a blockage and subsequent pollution incident at Lisnarick Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTW) in Fermanagh.

Nigel Armstrong, Field Manager for the area comments, “Staff reacted to an alarm at Lisnarick WwTW where on arrival, the operator found the treatment plant had been overwhelmed with a sudden surge of rags and septic waste blocking the inlet screening equipment. This resulted in contamination of the sewage treatment process and pollution to the receiving stream.

“It was obvious the works had received an unauthorised load of waste dumped into the sewage network. Rural treatment plants of this size serve small villages and are designed for steady flows of domestic sewage, they are not designed for surges or shock loads of waste.

‘‘Unfortunately, incidents of this nature are an all too common problem at some of our smaller WwTW’s. All our facilities provide an essential service for the community, so any damage impacts on service delivery by NI Water.  The cost is also a factor, this creates a needless drain on resources that could be better used to improve services.”

Those responsible are not only breaking the law by dumping waste into a manhole, but are also to blame for a pollution incident which affected a local stream in the area.

Nigel concludes, “I would appeal to members of the public to be vigilant of tankers emptying their contents into manholes and ask if they do notice anything to report the incident to the PSNI on 0845 600 8000 or you can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.’’