Irish Water pleads guilty to accidental discharge of lime into Wicklow's River Vartry
Irish Water has pleaded guilty to accidentally discharging lime into Wicklow's River Vartry. The event resulted in a fish kill for about 500m downstream.
The discharge from the company's water treatment facility at Roundwood, Co Wicklow, happened almost exactly one year ago, on February 21, 2017.
Ms Roisin O Callaghan, Fisheries Environmental Officer with Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), told Judge Kennedy that, on that day, IFI received a call that there had been an accidental spill of lime at the water treatment plant.
On investigation, she confirmed that the spill had resulted in fish deaths for approximately 500m downstream from the discharge. A series of water samples were taken and analysis confirmed that the lime spill had altered the pH in the receiving water, resulting in the death of approximately 100 fish.
Irish Water co-operated fully with IFI’s investigation and began an immediate clean-up of the site.
Mr Eoghan Cole BL, representing Irish Water, stated that following the clean-up, the Environmental Protection Agency had completed a dye survey on the drainage network to confirm that only clean surface water was discharging to the River Vartry.
Judge Kennedy commented on the significance of the River Vartry in supporting Atlantic salmon, sea trout, brown trout and lamprey.
Irish Water were fined €500 with costs and expenses amounting to €6,937.65.
In a statement, Irish Water confirmed the accidental spill of lime from the Vartry Water Treatment Plant, which is due to undergo a major upgrade.
"As soon as the issue was identified, work commenced to remove the lime from the river," Irish Water said.
Irish Water outlined in court this week that the pipes that were revealed to be defective during the investigation had since been repaired.
"No fault was attributed to Irish Water or any person involved," the company said.
