PREMIER Dairies was fined £300 yesterday for allowing polluting material to eater a drain which ran into the Dodder river last summer, causing an extensive fish kill.
Rathfarnham District Court heard that Premier Dairies of Whitehall Road, Rathfarnham Dublin, was having a refrigerating system updated by a "major international" company, J. & E. Hall Ltd, from Sandyford Industrial Estate, Dublin, when ammonia entered the Dodder on June 23rd.
Halls had brought in a sub contractor, Mr Eamonn Hart, from Hart Engineering Services, Clonshaugh Meadow, Clonshaugh, Co Dublin, to carry out the work. Excess ammonia poured from a barrel and Mr Hart and his employees tried to remove it with a hose. The Dodder had to be restocked, costing £2,000, and clean up costs were a further £800.
Mr Shane Murray, who represented Halls and Hart, said his clients were taking full responsibility for the spill. Nobody from Halls was on site at the time and Halls was "considerably embarrassed". Both Hart and Halls were fined £1,000 each.
A chemist, Ms Imelda Averill, said she found "very raised PH levels around the water drains".
On the river near its tributary, the Little Dargle (Churchtown stream), ammonia was four times its recommended level.
Judge Sean Delap said Premier Dairies was the least culpable of the three parties. "Despite restocking, it could take years to get the river back to the way it should be," he said.