Drugs in our Drinking Water
Scientists have known for decades that low concentrations of drugs are often present in drinking water, but there has not been much published on drugs in the Canadian water supply. A recent study conducted by Servos et al. for Environment Canada’s National Water Research Institute (NWR…
View the post titled Drugs in our Drinking WaterAn important appeal
On April 9 and 10, the Ontario Divisional Court will hear an important appeal: do applicants for environmental approvals have to do more than meet MOE standards? In Lafarge Canada v. Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal, Lafarge and the Ministry of the Environment will be lined up on one si…
View the post titled An important appealNew Rules on QPs
The MOE has pushed ahead with its regulation to restrict Environmental Site Assessments to professional engineers and geoscientists, as of October, 2009. O. Reg. 66/08 amends the definition of Qualified Person in O. Reg. 153/04. This will exclude agrologists and technologists, who now perfor…
View the post titled New Rules on QPsA determined man with a wrench
One of the classic homeowner nightmares keeps happening: a determined man with a wrench pumps oil into a house long since converted to gas. A recent Ontario case asked: does any liability fall on the person who did the conversion?
View the post titled A determined man with a wrenchAre our migratory birds protected?
One of the oldest international environmental treaties is the 1916 Convention between the United States (US) and Great Britain for the Protection of Migratory Birds in the US and Canada. It was adopted after the destruction of the once ubiquitous passenger pigeon, to require each country to …
View the post titled Are our migratory birds protected?Ontario Budget
The 2007 Ontario budget contained no grand environmental measures, such as BC’s shift from income taxes to carbon taxes. Nor does it tackle any of the large, strategic questions raised by the Environmental Commissioner about how to reconcile population and econimic growth with environm…
View the post titled Ontario BudgetSmog: Health, Agriculture or Politics?
This month, the U.S. EPA announced a very modest tightening of its ground-level ozone standards from 80 to 75 parts per billion, averaged over eight hours. This announcement met immediate criticism from public health advocates, since an extensive scientific review had recommended that the st…
View the post titled Smog: Health, Agriculture or Politics?Fines for Individuals
Three recent cases neatly illustrate the experience of many individuals charged with environmental offences.
View the post titled Fines for IndividualsPoisonous Biosolids?
In McElmurray v. USDA, 2008 WL 516751 (S.D.Ga.), a U.S. court has strongly criticized American biosolids policy, and awarded compensation to a farmer whose fields were poisoned by sewage sludge. McElmurray sought federal disaster compensation, on the ground that Augusta, Georgia’s muni…
View the post titled Poisonous Biosolids?Law or Politics?
The Federal Government filed its defence on Thursday, to Friends of the Earth’s climate change lawsuit. Last year, the three opposition parties combined to pass a Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, now part of the law of Canada. This statute requires the Minister of the Environment to …
View the post titled Law or Politics?Receive Blog Posts
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