Huge manure spill fines: $120,000 plus surcharge
Two hog farming businesses and a Director must pay manure spill fines of $120,000, plus $30,000 victim fine surcharges, for discharging pig manure into the Thames River and Sweets Creek. The manure impaired the quality of water, contrary to the Ontario Water Resources Act. The individual Dir…
View the post titled Huge manure spill fines: $120,000 plus surchargeAnti-fracking bylaws: US Lawyer wins green Nobel prize
Helen Slottje, a lawyer in Ithaca, New York, was recently awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work “helping towns across New York defend themselves from oil and gas companies by passing local bans on fracking” (the US equivalent of anti-fracking bylaws). Her legal res…
View the post titled Anti-fracking bylaws: US Lawyer wins green Nobel prizeClean Air court win for US Environmental Protection Agency
The US Environmental Protection Agency has won an important court victory that may help clean the air in Ontario. About half of the air pollution in southern Ontario blows in from the US, mostly from coal-fired power generation stations. The EPA has been trying, for many years, to force thos…
View the post titled Clean Air court win for US Environmental Protection AgencySupreme Court of Canada gives Chevron permission to appeal Ecuador pollution decision
The Supreme Court of Canada has granted Chevron’s application for leave to appeal the Ontario Court of Appeal decision allowing Ecuadorian plaintiffs to sue here to try to collect their $18 billion Ecuador pollution judgment. According to a US court, that award was based on fraud. Our …
View the post titled Supreme Court of Canada gives Chevron permission to appeal Ecuador pollution decisionYes, that pollution exclusion in your insurance does work
Businesses with pollution risks need to buy insurance WITHOUT pollution exclusions.
View the post titled Yes, that pollution exclusion in your insurance does workLondon fined $20,000 for wastewater plant spill
The City of London was fined $20,000, plus the 25% victim fine surcharge, for breaching its Ministry of the Environment approval for a wastewater treatment plant, contrary to the Ontario Water Resources Act. The City of London owns and operates the Greenway Pollution Control Centre. The faci…
View the post titled London fined $20,000 for wastewater plant spillNo personal environmental conviction without knowledge or participation
When is an individual liable to conviction for a corporate environmental offence? The Ontario Ministry of the Environment has insisted that management personnel are automatically liable for corporate environmental offences, and has laid numerous charges on this basis. The Summary Conviction …
View the post titled No personal environmental conviction without knowledge or participationWho pays when polluters can’t?
In theory, Canadians are pretty comfortable with the polluter pay principle, at least when it applies to other people. (We do not seem to feel the same way about carbon taxes.) In theory, the polluter-pay principle ensures that polluters, rather than the public or the immediate victims of po…
View the post titled Who pays when polluters can’t?Kawartha Lakes appeal heard by Court of Appeal
The City of Kawartha Lakes has appealed to the Ontario Court of Appeal from a Ministry of the Environment Order, which imposed cleanup liability on the City for contamination it did not cause. The City argues that the MOE should have imposed those cleanup costs on the polluters, meaning eith…
View the post titled Kawartha Lakes appeal heard by Court of AppealNew air standards in effect: Reg. 419/05 bites today
A major tightening of air pollution emission standards comes into force today for many Ontario industries. Regulation 419/05, under the Environmental Protection Act, bases air pollution standards on avoiding local impacts to human health and the environment, NOT on what is economically or te…
View the post titled New air standards in effect: Reg. 419/05 bites todayReceive Blog Posts
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