Photos of effluent flowing into the Castor River, east of Ottawa, were filed as exhibits Monday in the trial of Cochrane Dairy and executive Barry Cochrane, who pleaded not guilty to five counts laid under the Fisheries Act. (HANDOUT)
A rural dairy was handed a $27,000 fine Friday for dumping toxic cleaning solution into the Castor River southeast of Ottawa in 2012.
Cochrane’s Dairy was convicted under the federal Fisheries Act in February for releasing the material, which came to Environment Canada’s attention in August 2012.
Alerted to the problem, staff promised to straighten up and fly right.
And they did for a while, paying a removal firm to haul away the cleaning solution used to wash out the company’s milk tanks between production runs.
But Judge Catherine Kehoe noted the dairy soon started dumping the material onto a nearby field, which again allowed the solution to leach into the river.
Company director Barry Cochrane was also convicted and personally fined $6,500; Kehoe said he ought to have ignored the direction of his father, who was not charged and who allegedly ordered dairy staff to resume releasing the material into the field.
Cochrane “is responsible for his acquiescence to the direction of his father,” Kehoe said, adding he “could have and should have refused” to comply.
She also found the company profited by their offence by virtue of not having to incur the costs of having a removal company to take away the used cleaning solution.
Though the solution was toxic to fish, there was no evidence the dairy’s transgression led directly to any aquatic fatalities.
The only confirmed deaths came from lab trout used to test the toxicity of the effluent — the court heard all fish exposed to the solution met untimely ends.
Source: The Ottawa Sun
