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Spills and Containment

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Ontario contractor fined $60K for delaying report of diesel spill during ice road work

An excavation contracting company has been fined $60,000 in relation to the discharge of diesel fuel and oil into Birch Lake during northern Ontario...
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Two B.C. companies fined for contaminating rivers during work projects

The Provincial Court of British Columbia has issued fines in relation to guilty pleas for two separate incidents where companies illegally discharged ammonia and...
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Exploring the vital role of pollution liability insurance for businesses and wastewater treatment plants

Unlike most liability exposures that impact a lot of businesses, pollution losses are not a frequency risk, but rather a severity risk.
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Ontario cat litter manufacturer fined after it delayed reporting spill 

A clumping cat litter company in Brantford, Ontario, has been fined more than $90,000 for an incident that spilled some 200 litres of a...
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Mining company fined $600K for polluting St. Lawrence River in Quebec

A major mining company that operates in 35 countries has been fined $600,000 for spilling sodium hydroxide and hydrochloric acid into sewer and storm...
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Car rental company fined $1M for fuel transfer spill that polluted Quebec creek

Following an attempt to transfer 20,000 litres of gasoline into a 5,000-litre fuel trap, Enterprise Rent-A-Car has been fined $1 million for the eventual...
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Alberta regulator, Imperial Oil apologize for not publicizing wastewater leaks

Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change has expressed concern that the recent oil seepage occurring at Alberta’s Kearl Oil Sands Mine was not...
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Engineering firm fined $1M for concrete leachate discharge in BC

Engineering firm Keller Foundations Ltd.’s construction activities have led to a $1 million fine after discharging concrete leachate into groundwater that flowed into British...
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Quebec company faces wastewater fine; Ontario landfill leachate spill

A Quebec-based tofu producer has been fined more than $76,000 for moving ahead with facility upgrades, including a new wastewater treatment system, prior to...
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Ohio EPA still monitoring water following toxic train derailment

Emergency response workers have removed just over one million gallons of contaminated water from puddles and ditches near the scene of Ohio’s recent train...
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Environmental fine round-up: Ontario construction group, landfill, greenhouse

The Ontario-based Barclay Construction Group Inc. has joined an alternative measures agreement in response to its workers depositing sediment-contaminated water into Lake Ontario from...
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Quebec, B.C. firms face environmental fines for spill, hazmat violations

Environmental fines have been levied against companies in British Columbia and Quebec for an effluent spill and improper chemical storage, respectively, according to new...
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Diamond mine fined $350K for diesel tank spill in NWT

De Beers Canada Inc. has been fined $350,000 for an accidental diesel oil release that entered the environment around Snap Lake Mine, just south...
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Water treatment plant closes downstream of oil spill in Ontario’s Algoma Region

Following an Algoma steel plant’s lubricant oil spill into St. Mary’s River, local officials downstream in Echo Bay have shut off their water treatment...
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Emergency response kits playing a critical role in improving the safety of rail transportation

There are three primary potential risks every time a train laden with hazardous materials pulls away from the depot: accident, mechanical failure, and operator error. Despite the next-generation design and notable improvements in the operation of railcars and their ancillary components, the high-level training that rail personnel receive, the attention paid to guaranteeing that the railway infrastructure is in good working order, and stricter regulations governing the transport of hazardous materials, there is still a chance that a hazmat release could occur.
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Husky Energy faces six charges over record Newfoundland oil spill

Husky Energy is facing six charges in relation to a 2018 oil spill that was the largest in Newfoundland and Labrador’s history. Over the last...
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Ontario shipping company fined by U.S. over wastewater discharge

An Ontario-based shipping company in St. Catharines — one of the largest dry and liquid bulk carriers operating on the Great Lakes — has...
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Keeping workers safer when transferring flammable and combustible liquids

Protecting workers from harm includes proper safety training, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and the use of engineering controls to prevent dangerous spills.
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B.C. train derailment spills potash into Hunter Creek

Dramatic video footage of a Canadian Pacific Railway train derailment last week, near Hunter Creek, west of Hope, British Columbia, shows piles of mangled...
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‘Smart’ secondary containment system can prevent catastrophic oil spills

In the event of an oil spill or leak this smart geotextile congeals and seals the oil containment system, preventing oil from passing through.
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Surfactant-based extraction product helps minimize impacts from large spill in Alberta

Sampling at the site showed that the oil/water mixture that escaped from the containment area had coursed down the hill rather than penetrated into the soil to any significant depth. So, the consultant decided that it could “do a flush” rather than a “scrape”, which, more precisely, was passive and active surface flushing, rather than excavation and off-site disposal.

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