| Montreal, 20/08/2003 – The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) has received a citizen submission asserting that Canada is failing to effectively enforce the federal Fisheries Act against the City of Montreal in regard to the discharge to the St. Lawrence River of toxic pollutants from the city's Technoparc site.
The Secretariat received the submission (Montreal Technoparc, SEM 03-005) from three Canadian and two United States environmental nongovernmental organizations on 14 August 2003. The submitters assert that polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other pollutants are being discharged from the Technoparc, the site of an historic industrial and municipal waste landfill. The City of Montreal now owns the site. The submitters cite the results of samples showing levels of PCBs in the discharges up to 8.5 million times the 1987 Canadian Water Quality Guideline of 0.001 micrograms per liter for PCBs and levels at locations beyond the point of discharge of up to 941,000 times the PCB Guideline. The submitters also report that sampling showed elevated levels of other toxic pollutants. Citing information on the adverse effects of the discharges on human health and aquatic resources, the submitters note that Environment Canada has said that PCBs, which the submitters assert are a persistent toxic substance and carcinogen, are "too dangerous to the ecosystem and to humans to permit their release in any quantity."
The submitters assert that the Technoparc discharges are an offence under section 36(3) of the Fisheries Act, which prohibits the deposit of a deleterious substance into water frequented by fish or in any place under any conditions where the substance may enter such water. They state that, in response to public complaints, Environment Canada began an investigation into the Technoparc discharges in April 2002 and terminated it in April 2003, stating it could not determine the source of the contamination. They also assert that the City of Montreal's attempts to contain the discharges with booms, to pump out the toxins or to contain the discharges with absorbent pads have been ineffective. The submitters assert Canada's alleged failure to halt the ongoing discharges from Technoparc amounts to a failure to effectively enforce section 36(3) of the Fisheries Act.
The citizen submissions mechanism of the CEC enables the public to play a whistle-blower role on matters of environmental law enforcement. Under Article 14 of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), any person or nongovernmental organization may submit a claim alleging that a NAFTA partner has failed to effectively enforce its environmental law. Following a review of the submission, the CEC may investigate the matter and pursue a factual record of its findings.
For further information, please consult: <http://www.cec.org/citizen/>.
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