| Montreal, 27/07/2007 – On 25 July 2007, St. Clair Channelkeeper, Environmental Law Society of Wayne State University Law School, Brendan Frey, Noah Hall, Doug Martz, Andrea Montbriand and Oday Salim (the “Submitters”) presented a citizen submission to the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). The Submitters allege that Canada is failing to effectively enforce its environmental law by not preventing chemical and sewage spills to the St. Clair River in Sarnia, Ontario, and failing to notify downstream areas in the St. Clair-Detroit River corridor about spill incidents.
In SEM-07-004 (St. Clair River), the Submitters assert that Canada is failing to effectively enforce Section 3 of the federal International Boundary Waters Treaty Act and Article IV of the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty by failing to contain water pollution from Sarnia, Ontario, which, they allege, is causing injury to the health and property of the United States and its citizens. The Submitters cite examples of spills that occurred at refineries and sewage treatment plants between 2003 and 2007. They allege that there has been little response from Canada to a 2006 International Joint Commission report recommending spill prevention measures for the St. Clair-Detroit River Corridor. The Submitters assert that despite repeated requests from the Macomb County (Michigan) Water Quality Board, Canada has offered little response about matching US efforts to install state-of-the-art, real-time water quality monitoring equipment aimed at improving the quality of drinking water coming from the St. Clair River Basin.
The Secretariat of the CEC is analyzing the submission to determine whether it meets the requirements of Article 14 of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC).
The CEC citizen submission mechanism allows citizens to play an active "whistleblower" role in matters relating to environmental law enforcement. Pursuant to NAAEC Article 14, any citizen or nongovernmental organization may file a submission with the CEC Secretariat when it believes that a NAFTA partner is failing to effectively enforce its environmental law. After reviewing the submission, the CEC may investigate the matter and publish a factual record of its findings.
For more information, please visit the CEC's Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters page. |
