Company fined $120,000 for Discharging Waste Oil Sludge
Hamilton – A company was fined $120,000 for discharging waste oil sludge into a municipal ditch in the City of Hamilton impairing the ditch and the downstream receiving waters.
“Polluters should be aware that the ministry’s Investigations and Enforcement Branch will vigorously pursue charges when our environmental laws are broken,” said Environment Minister Jim Bradley.
Green Diesel Canada Ltd.,has ministry approval to transport waste cooking oil and processes this oil for sale. The processing generates an oil sludge that must be properly managed and disposed of.
The ministry responded to reports of oil being dumped to a ditch on Swayze Road in Hamilton and a truck registered to the company was later found to have been in the area. Thousands of litres of a greasy oily substance were found in the ditch which was cleaned up by the City of Hamilton. The ditch flowed to Sinkhole Creek, a tributary of Twenty Mile Creek that flows into Lake Ontario.
About two months later, a City of Hamilton employee noticed a tanker truck stopped at the same turnaround on Swayze Road and upon checking the site found thousands of litres of waste oil sludge in the ditch. The tanker truck was registered to the company. The site was cleaned up again by the City of Hamilton.
The company was fined a total of $120,000, plus victim fine surcharges of $30,000 and was given 12 months to pay the fines. Also, the court issued a Restitution Order requiring the company to immediately pay the City of Hamilton $25,371.11, as restitution for the clean up costs of the two spills.
Members of the media:
Kate Jordan
Communications Branch
(416) 314-6666
Contact information for the general public:
416-325-4000 or 1-800-565-4923
