When Peterborough County sheep farmer Rucco Braat arranged in 2011 for soil to be delivered to his farm, he did not get the clean fill he originally requested. Instead, the 700 truckloads of fill delivered and graded by Earthworx Industries were found to be highly contaminated.
Upon inspection by officials from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, the soil was found to contain many odds and ends, including glass, brick, sea shells, rubber gaskets, metal rods, and wood. Further testing by the Terrestrial Assessment Unit concluded that it was contaminated with heavy metals, with elevated concentrations of lead, cadmium, copper, and zinc exceeding Environmental Protection Act standards. The soil was also tested for leachate contaminants, BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, and xylene), and petroleum hydrocarbons.
Braat had hoped to elevate a portion of the property in order to construct a new sheep barn for his animals, but could not use the soil due to its potential damage to the environment and to his animals. The fill area covered more than 7000 square metres of the farmer’s land, and the sheep were prevented from grazing outdoors as usual due to potential poisoning from the contaminants, especially due to copper uptake into plants.
The ministry contacted and ordered the director of Earthworx, Mr. Claudio Villa, to submit a plan for the sampling and characterization of the soil, but the company did not comply. In 2013, the Ministry of the Environment laid charges under Part XV.1 of the Environmental Protection Act (for contaminated sites) on Earthworx and Green For Life (GFL), the company that originally provided the soil. GFL serves as both Toronto’s garbage-collecting contractor, and a soil removal company for downtown developments. Both companies currently do work on various other sites in the Otonabee-South Monaghan and Toronto areas.
Earthworx eventually pleaded guilty and was convicted Monday March 2, 2015, and was subsequently fined $70 000, with Mr. Villa being personally fined an additional $14 500. Mr. Villa and the company have 90 days to pay the fines. After having removed a significant amount of soil and with Earthworx pleading guilty, charges against GFL were dropped.
It is yet unclear who is liable for the remediation of the site; however Braat himself is suing both companies for $2 million in damages. GFL is counter-suing for $600 000 for the cost of having removed 192 truckloads of soil from the property.
Liability in cases of contaminated sites has always been a subject of debate. While measures have been taken to ensure that property owners who were not responsible for the contamination of their sites do not have to incur the cost of remediation, they’re still stuck with the fees in many cases.
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