Lafarge fined $140,000 for water act violation
Lafarge Canada has been fined $140,000 in Ontario court for a violation of the Ontario Water Resources Act.
The conviction relates to the company failing to comply with a condition of the ministry approval by exceeding the maximum monthly concentration limit for total suspended solids in effluent from the sewage works.
The offence occurred during September 2017.
Lafarge owns and operates the Brockville Quarry located on Prescott Road east of Brockville.
The quarry operates under a ministry approval for the company's sewage works for the collection, transmission, treatment and disposal of wastewater from the quarry pit. The sewage works ultimately discharges via a drainage ditch to the St. Lawrence River.
One condition of the ministry approval establishes limits for the sewage works discharge of certain materials including total suspended solids. It also stipulates how to calculate the effluent's monthly average concentrations.
Lafarge is required to operate the sewage works such that the monthly average concentration of total suspended solids in the effluent from the sewage works does not exceed 25 mg/L. In September 2017, samples collected and analyzed for total suspended solids yielded a monthly average concentration of 54.25 mg/L, which exceeds the limit.
The ministry's Environmental Investigations and Enforcement Branch investigated and laid charges which resulted in one conviction.
The company has been given six months to pay its fine, and will pay a victim fine surcharge of $35,000.