A Hamilton construction company is set to pay six figures to an environmental arm of the federal government in compensation for a 2018 dumping incident near a city pier.
The agreement between Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and The Barclay Construction Group Inc. will see the latter pay $175,000 to the government of Canada’s Environmental Damages Fund as recommended by a court as an alternative to prosecution.
Charges were laid by enforcement officers following a June 2018 marine training exercise at Pier 12 in Hamilton Harbour after they observed a pump removing water from an excavation site where sediment-contaminated water was deposited into Lake Ontario.
Laboratory results revealed that the contaminated water contained substances that were harmful to fish, a violation of the Fisheries Act.
ECCC didn’t release any information on how much sediment-contaminated water was deposited into the lake.
A judge has stayed charges amid the agreement between ECCC and Barclay Construction.
Barclay has also agreed to host an open house and construction conference promoting “effective implementation of environmental management systems” through improvements and an agreement to develop and finalize a standard operating procedure on containment spills and cleanup.