To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs what recent assessment he has made of (i) the level of pollution in the Owenkillew River; and (ii) the impact of that pollution on aquatic life.

(i) The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA), within my Department, monitors all rivers in NI under the requirements of water protection legislation to assess overall water quality status for classification.

There are five river units or ‘waterbodies’ surveyed on the main Owenkillew River.

Three of these, the Owenkillew Killymore, the Owenkillew Gortin and the Owenkillew Drumlea were assessed as Good Overall status in 2018 and all three waterbodies remain at Good Ecological status in the 2021 classification. There were no exceedances of the standards for any chemicals monitored in these three waterbodies.

The Owenkillew Glenhull and the Davagh Water were assessed as Moderate Overall status in 2018 due to exceedances of the iron standard. In the 2021 classification levels of iron continued to exceed the set standard and both waterbodies remain Moderate Ecological status. My Department is currently investigating if these are natural iron levels due to the underlying geology.

In addition, the Owenkillew Glenhull waterbody exceeded the standard set for the insecticide cypermethrin. There were no exceedances of any of the chemicals monitored in the Davagh Water.

NIEA is also responsible for investigating, under the Water (NI) Order 1999, reports of water pollution, for regulating discharges to waterways and underground strata and for initiating enforcement action where appropriate

There have been a number of confirmed pollution incidents over the period 2016 to 2020 in four of the Owenkillew water bodies. No pollution incidents have been reported in the Davagh Water. The majority of these have been assessed as low severity. There was one Medium Severity Incident in 2016, related to a discharge of water containing suspended solid material that impacted a tributary of the Owenkillew River in the Drumlea waterbody. This was discovered and actioned by NIEA Water Quality staff immediately to ensure a rapid cessation of the discharge. A Warning Letter, issued in respect of the Water (NI) Order 1999 was issued to the polluter identified.

(ii) As all biological elements in the five waterbodies are at Good status, the levels of pollution, including Iron and other chemicals are not impacting on aquatic life monitored to assess the classification status in the river.

The Medium Severity Incident in the Owenkillew Drumlea waterbody did not have any recorded impact on the fishery in the catchment and there was no longer term impact on water quality identified.