Years of work to improve the biodiversity of a Co Tyrone river was ‘wiped out in hours’ after a slurry spill killed everything within around 9km.
Mid Ulster SDLP councillor Malachy Quinn said the incident on Sunday night has left him “angry and depressed”. It’s understood that slurry from a farm spilled into drains which feed into the River Torrent and subsequently Coalisland Canal, leaving a “dead” zone from Newmills to Clonoe.
Cllr Quinn says it’s the third time in four months he’s had to alert the Environment Agency about spills into the river. Now he is calling for a “rethink about what’s running into our waters” as well as better protections to stops such catastrophes which will impact the otters and kingfishers that use the river as well.
