Irish Water pleads guilty to polluting Louth stream

Irish Water has pleaded guilty to polluting a Co Louth stream after a malfunction at a sewage treatment plant led to a discharge which turned water grey. However, it has been given a chance to avoid a criminal record after Judge John O’Neill ordered the utility to donate €2,000 to charity.

Irish Water was prosecuted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to ensure sewage waste from a water treatment plant at Tinure in Co Louth did not cause pollution. Prosecution solicitor Maeve Larkin told Judge O’Neill at Dublin District Court that the offence can result in a conviction with a maximum €5,000 fine.

EPA inspector Dermot Burke told the court that on June 4 last he went to the treatment plant and verified that discharge from the facility went into a fast-flowing stream which is a tributary of the White River.