Pollution response in Northern Ireland
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If a pollution incident is reported or is discovered, the Pollution Response team will find and stop the source of the pollution, identify the polluter and when necessary collect enough evidence to secure a prosecution.
What happens next?
The team co-ordinates the response to all reported pollution incidents. Once an incident has been reported and its severity assessed, the Duty Emergency Pollution Officer then mobilises the staff and resources necessary to deal with each incident.
Every incident is responded to with a view to:
- tracing the source of pollution
- stopping the pollution at source
- identifying the polluter
- collecting sufficient evidence, if appropriate, to secure a prosecution
- notifying persons who may be affected by a serious incident
- organising/giving advice for clean-up operations (if required)
- preventing the continuation or the repetition of pollution
- enforcing the legislation and making the polluter pay.
If you would like to find out more about the nature of incidents that are encountered in Northern Ireland you can find details of these in our annual statistics reports below.