AQW 19748/17-22

Mr John Blair
Alliance Party
South Antrim

Tabled Date: 01/06/2021
Answered On Date: 15/06/2021
Priority Written: Yes

Question:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs for an update on the investigation into the fish kill event along the river at Three Mile Water.

Answer:

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) was made aware of a pollution incident impacting on the Three Mile Water River, Whiteabbey, at 20:35 on Monday 31 May 2021. A Senior Water Quality Inspector from NIEA was on site to carry out an investigation at 21:10.

From the ongoing investigation by officials from NIEA and DAERA Inland Fisheries, I can confirm that there have been a significant number of native brown trout mortalities and a number of sticklebacks were also lost. The native brown trout mortalities were as follows: Age Class, 0+ 105, 1+ 67, 2+ 21 and 3+ 2 i.e. a total of 195 brown trout. The fish kill has been classified as ‘Major’ using set criteria.

Unfortunately, I am unable to provide you with further details regarding the investigation at this time as it is NIEA policy to treat all aspects of an ongoing case as ‘sub judice’.