A Calgary consultant has been fined $28,750 after pleading guilty to one count of knowingly providing false or misleading information in connection with soil sampling she was hired to do for a meat-processing facility.
Ginger Ada Rogers was sentenced for violating the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act on Sept. 12, Alberta Environment and Parks said in a news release on Tuesday.
In addition to the fine, her sentence stipulates Rogers is barred from “submitting any documents or reports to Alberta Environment and Parks, under any entity’s permit to practise, where she is the responsible professional member for the permit for three years.”
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“Rogers was contracted to conduct soil sampling on behalf of a meat-processing facility that was allowed to release wastewater from their operation to nearby lands if soil conditions met established parameters,” the ministry said. “When Rogers submitted the 2015 reports on behalf of the facility, she included a lab report with 2013 results, indicating they were 2015 results.
“The 2013 soil results met the established parameters. The lab results from the 2015 sample would not have allowed the facility to release their wastewater to the nearby lands.”
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The company that owns and operates the Fort Macleod-based meat-processing facility in question is Bouvry Exports Calgary Ltd.
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According to an agreed statement of facts, Alberta Environment and Parks “communicated their concerns about the 2015 report to Bouvry.”
“Bouvry then contacted Ms. Rogers and asked her to explain to anomalous identical results,” the document reads. “In a June 24, 2016 letter, Ms. Rogers stated that the identical results were an ‘unusual occurrence’ and that she did not believe this occurrence was a reporting or analytical error with the laboratory’s testing.”
At the time of the offence, Rogers was the sole director and shareholder of ACER Environmental Solutions Inc. The company has since dissolved.
You can view the agreed statement of facts in their entirety below.
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