UK’s Western Brand Poultry Products pleads guilty in fish kill

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  Andrea Gantz

  U.K.-based Western Brand Poultry Products pleaded guilty to charges of making a polluting discharge into the Moorlough River.

  From WATTAgNet:
  Western Brand Poultry Products (NI) Ltd of Screevagh, Lisnaskea, U.K., entered a guilty plea on November 10 to charges of making a polluting discharge into a waterway that was responsible for the death of thousands of fish. The poultry company was fined GBP2,000 (US$3,168) for the offense. Western Brand Poultry Products also had to pay GBP28 (US$44.35) in court costs,a GBP15 (US$23.76) offenders’ levy, and GBP 3,949.70 (US$6,256.73) to cover fish restocking costs.
  Enniskillen Magistrates’ Court heard that on July 10, 2013 the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) investigated a fish kill in the Moorlough River near Lisnaskea. The source of the fish kill was traced up the stream to the premises of Western Brand Poultry Products, where a leak of ammonia from a refrigeration unit at a plant was found.
  Upon further investigation, it was subsequently found that three kilometers of the Moorlough River had been affected, with the deaths of 2,760 adult fish. Several thousand juvenile fish were also found dead in that stretch of the river.
  According to the company’s website, Western Brand Poultry Products was founded in 1954, and has become one of the largest producers of primary chicken products in the Republic of Ireland.