Convicted - Golden Acre Farms Inc.
Court Location - Windsor
Description of Offence - The conviction relates to failing to comply with a ministry approval condition by failing to ensure that the 4-month rolling average effluent limits were not exceeded.
Date of Offence - On or about November 27, 2018
Date of Conviction - January 15, 2021
Penalty Imposed - Golden Acre Farms was convicted of one violation under the Environmental Protection Act and was fined $25,000 plus a victim fine surcharge of $6,250 with 90 days to pay the fine.
Background:
- Golden Acre Farms Inc. operates a greenhouse facility and is under ministry approval for the sewage works, at a site on Graham Side Road in the Town of Kingsville.
- The sewage works include a stormwater collection pond that discharges into the Fulmer Drain and ultimately into Lake Erie.
- One condition of the ministry approval relates to the established limits on the discharge of certain materials from the sewage works, including phosphorus. Specifically, the company was required to operate and maintain the sewage works such that the four-month rolling average concentration of phosphorous in the pond effluent did not exceed 0.5 mg/L.
- Samples taken from the pond at the site in August, September, October and November of 2018 were confirmed to have phosphorous concentrations for the period ending November 27, 2018 at a four-month rolling average calculated at 0.996 mg/L - an exceedance of the 0.5 mg/L limit established in the ministry approval.
- The ministry’s Environmental Investigations and Enforcement Branch investigated and laid one charge which resulted in one conviction.