EDMONTON — Two-sided posters detailing the impacts of illegally handling hazardous waste will be printed, distributed and paid for by an Edmonton man guilty of environmental offences.
Peter Greenways pleaded guilty to two counts under the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act related to the the improper transportation and storage of hazardous waste materials from his metal plating operation in south Edmonton.
Greenways was found to have mishandled hazardous waste, some of which ended up in Mill Creek Ravine.
The handout is set to be distributed to other businesses that feed into the Mill Creek drainage basin. It chronicles the hardships endured by Greenways in the wake of his environmental mishaps – which has included years of prosecution.
“It’s a very, very wearing thing,” Greenways explains in the poster, adding that the prosecution had been “weighing on his mind.”
The posters are meant to educate local businesses on the environmental impact of illegal waste disposal, and the personal repercussions of being found guilty of such offences.
In addition to being banned from possessing, or owning any company that processes hazardous waste or hazardous recyclables for two years, Greenways was also fined $50,000. Of that, $7,500 will be used to fund the posters.
This isn’t the first time that creative sentencing has been considered for environmental charges affiliated with Greenways.
In 2004, Centennial Zinc Plating Ltd. (operated by Greenways) pleaded guilty to one count under the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act for improperly storing hazardous waste. The plea deal led to 13 other counts against Centennial, and 13 related counts against Industrial Plating (1981) Ltd. (where Greenways is listed as a principle) to be dropped.
The offences occurred between September 1, 1993 and April 3, 2001.
David Lapp, a reclamation and remediation expert witness in the case, characterized it as “one of the worst” examples of mishandled hazardous waste materials he had seen.
Over the course of eight years, materials including cyanide waste from their chrome and zinc electroplating operations were mishandled, and at times, disposed of directly into waste water drains.
In that case, the judge considered creative sentencing where Centennial Zinc Plating Ltd. would create a $200,000 endowment fund for several University of Alberta post-graduate students studying land reclamation. However, that idea was eventually dropped in favour of a $125,000 fine for the company.
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