Ontario Construction News staff writer
An aggregate construction company has been convicted by an Ontario Court after exceeding the maximum monthly concentration limit for total suspended solids in effluent from the sewage works.
Charges related to the period of Sept. 1 to 30, 2017 and the conviction happened last month.
Lafarge Canada Inc. was convicted of one violation under the Ontario Water Resources Act and was fined $140,000 plus a victim fine surcharge of $35,000 and was given 6 months to pay.
Lafarge Canada owns and operates a quarry known as the Brockville Quarry located on Prescott Road east of Brockville.
The court report says 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.
The court said 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.