5 P.G. Companies Noted in Ministry of Environment 3rd Quarter Report

Tuesday, December 23, 2008 03:57 AM

The Ministry of Environment has released the third Quarterly Compliance and Enforcement Summary for 2008. Several Prince George companies are in the report.

The most significant Prince George case is the guilty plea by Marsulex Inc for the release of a large plume of sulphur dioxide in August of 2006. Marsulex Inc. was penalized $150,000 and was ordered to pay $148,000 of

that penalty to the Habitat Conservation Trust Fund. The maximum fine under section 120 (7) of the Environmental Management Act is $300,000 or imprisonment for not more than six months, or both.

The 3^rd quarter summary also notes orders that were issued to prevent or stop impacts to the environment, human health or safety. 13 such orders were written during the third quarter, and five of them involved Prince George businesses:

Husky Oil, an information order issued in response to waterfowl having been oiled in an effluent pond at a property held by Husky Oil Operations.

Canfor: information order issued after a site inspection raised questions about the manner in which wood debris was being stored .

Centre City Paving: information order issued requiring the company perform additional stack monitoring and submit those results to the Ministry

Northwest Wood Preservers, issued a pollution prevention order after a site inspection raised questions about how ash was being stored, the Ministry says the method may cause pollution to occur.

Interior Warehousing A Pollution Abatement Order issued to stop pollution from occurring at the Prince George site. The order outlines several things the property owners must do.

The full report notes compliance actions resulted in a combined total of more than $155,000 in fines during the third quarter of 2008. Combined with fines from the first and second quarters, compliance actions resulted in more

than $390,700 in fines during the first nine months of this year.

You can read the full report at www.env.gov.bc.ca/main/prgs/compliancereport.html

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Posted on Tuesday, December 23, 2008 03:57 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Oldun on December 23 2008 3:05 PM
It would appear that road dust and wood heating are not by any means the only culprit in Prince George's problems If these companys are only given a small fine they will never have any incentive to clean up their act. A fine of $150,000 to Marsulex is in my opinion away to low. They sent people to hospital and were lucky they didn't kill anybody. Will any of those effected suffer any lung problems, etc. in the future? Bottom line is the buck. The hell with people.

Posted by: Eagleone on December 24 2008 12:06 AM
'Cost of doing business'.. for some companies anyways, and for the ones that it is those are the ones we need to weed out of the wood work and up the enforcement on IMO.