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Steve Newman
Renfrew council has authorized solicitor Roger Harris to negotiate a settlement with the Ministry of the Environment in a year-long case involving a ruptured ferric chloride tank at the old sewage plant.
Council has also asked Renfrew development and works director Mike Asselin to work with Harris to negotiate a settlement.
As a second clause of the same motion, the town authorized a settlement of up to $30,000 in fines.
Two charges stem from the Aug. 20, 2008 rupture of the tank lining at the plant. At the same time, the new sewage plant was also being constructed next door.
There are about 700 pages of testimony to date, with a pre-trial scheduled for Jan. 28, 2011 in Renfrew provincial court.
That pre-trail could result in a settlement before going to trial.
MOE has laid one charge of impairment of the environment and another for failing to maintain and operate the same plant in a proper manner. The first charge is potentially the most serious, said Harris.
One question is whether the amounts said to have entered the Bonnechere River were in excess of acceptable levels, Harris told council.
The town is arguing that the chemical, which is part of the treatment process, did not enter the river. Officials with the Ontario Clean Water Agency, which were operating the facility at the time, are of the same opinion, said Harris.
“There (were) no floating fish, there (were) no floating snails, none of that,” said Harris of the circumstances surrounding the ruptured tank.
OCWA also runs the new sewage plant, which opened in August 2009.
Although OCWA staff is responsible for operating the plant, Asselin says the town is responsible for its own facilities. “Ultimately, we are the owners (of the facility),” said Asselin.
In the old sewage plant, there was regulated monitoring of three substances, namely phosphorus, suspended solids and BOD (biological oxygen demand).
Monitoring of ferric chloride is “well beyond” the scope of normal monitoring, indicated Asselin. Ferric chloride is used to reduce phosphorus levels in the plant effluent which enters the river.
A settlement, Asselin told The Mercury, is probably better, since a trial would not be the best use of taxpayers’ money. The director indicated said the town is hoping to continue conversations with the Crown before Christmas.
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