Fuel Laundering Op Pollutes Fishing Lake

By LINDA McKEE

The waters of one of Co Armagh’s most popular fishing lakes ran red after they were polluted with effluent from a suspected fuel laundering plant.

It will take weeks to clean up Lowry’s Lake at Hamiltonsbawn after a significant amount of what appeared to be red diesel flowed into a stream feeding the lake, investigators from Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) said.

The alert was raised last Thursday after a caller contacted the agency’s Water Pollution Hotline.

NIEA officers worked closely with anglers as they battled to stem the flow in the days after the incident, deploying oil absorbent booms in a bid to prevent the pollution reaching a nearby trout hatchery managed by Armagh Fisheries.

A specialist clean-up company has now been employed to remove the contained oil.

HM Revenue and Customs officers have since visited a nearby farm where they identified a fuel laundering plant and a criminal investigation is under way with a view to prosecution.

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