CP Rail received the penalty due to failure to comply with an effluent discharge permit

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. has received a $31,500 penalty for environmental pollution by the Province of B.C.

The penalty CP Rail received was due to failure to comply with an effluent discharge permit for its railyard in Golden. As a result, CP is working to make some changes to its operations to ensure the issue is resolved.

“CP has taken a number of steps to correct the issue identified… including engineered upgrades to the treatment system and the hiring of a full-time treatment plant operator,” said CP Rail media relations advisor Salem Woodrow.

The company was unable to disclose what is being discharged from the rail yard, and where it is being discharged to.

A quarterly environmental assessment summary stated that CP Rail failed to comply with the terms of a waste discharge permit, which required the company to ensure that wastewater discharged from a pair of treatment plants met standards for biochemical oxygen demand, pH levels, and toxicity.

The provincial Natural Resource Compliance and Enforcement Database releases the quarterly reports. CP Rail was penalized in the third quarter of 2018.

The quarterly enforcement summaries detail a total of 1,728 actions taken by the provincial government during the third and fourth quarters, along with $885,907 in penalties and fines.

In total, the province stated it has issued 62 orders, 139 administrative sanctions, 31 court convictions, 14 administrative penalties and 2,412 violation tickets totalling $1,092,465 in fines in 2018.

The most frequently contravened acts were the Wildlife Act with 1,040 violations, the Fisheries Act (Canada) with 375 violations, and the Off-Road Vehicle Act with 344 violations, a provincial information bulletin states.

To date, nearly 33,000 enforcement actions have been published in the summary and entered into the ministry’s environmental violations database.

Other notable enforcement actions, for the third and fourth quarters, according to the province include:

* Radium Resort Group Ltd. was fined $200,000 for introducing waste-causing pollution and open burning of prohibited construction materials. Of that total, $190,000 was directed to Habitat Conservation Trust Fund.

* Mackenzie Pulp Mill Corporation (Mackenzie, B.C.) received penalties of $81,100 for failure to maintain a recovery boiler and failing to comply with permit limits for bivalent sulphur compounds and particulate matter.

* Savage Creek Golf Course Ltd. (near Richmond, B.C.) received a penalty of $70,000 for significantly exceeding fill-level maximums, while developing an 18-hole Richmond golf course expansion in the Agricultural Land Reserve.