A farmer from Northern Ireland has been sentenced to three months in prison although the sentence is a suspended one and this is because he polluted the waterways. The farmer in question is William Madill Kerr who is 74 years old. He was sentenced in a magistrate’s court for the said offence. The offence was first discovered by investigators acting under a tipoff from the Northern Ireland Environmental agency. They discovered that a slurry discharge was coming from the farmer’s farm and entering the waterways. That was in December 2017. Then in January 2018 the same inspectors came again and saw that the incident was repeating itself. Slurry was being discharged onto a lane into the trough of the River Maine. Therefore, the team decided to collect samples of the slurry. Then thereafter the inspectors returned to the farm to check whether the farmer had been carrying out remedial works on his farm and trying to correct the problem. They discovered that nothing was being done to correct the problem as they found it the first time. When the discharge was analyzed, it was found to contain pollutants that would be harmful to lives in the water. Thereafter, Mr Kerr had to be convicted and charged.

Key Takeaways:

• A farmer from Northern Ireland has been sentenced to three months in prison with a suspension of two years after he pleaded guilty to polluting the waterway.
• The pollution was discovered by the agents of the Northern Ireland Environmental agency when they discovered slurry in the waterways close to the farm.
• After a third inspection of the farm and slurry was still there, they decided to form a tripartite committee to determine remediation works.

“Slurry had recently flowed down the lane into a track cut in a roadside verge, before entering a trough which discharges into an unnamed tributary of the River Maine.”

Read more: https://www.farminguk.com/News/Farmer-sentenced-to-prison-after-polluting-waterway_51963.html