Company faces $72,500 in fines and surcharges for pollution

[Mike]

Thu, Mar/2/06

Hamilton Spectator

February 23/2006

by Editorial

Imperial Precast Corp. and its owner, Emilio Domenic Sciullo, must pay $72,500 in fines and victim surcharges after pleading guilty to a series of air and water pollution offences.

They also pleaded guilty to providing false or misleading information to an Environment Ministry officer last year.

Justice of the Peace Barbara Waugh accepted the plea in Hamilton Monday, convicted both the company and Sciullo and imposed fines totalling $58,000. Standard surcharges add $14,500 to the penalties.

A company receptionist said yesterday Sciullo would not comment. According to Industry Canada, Imperial Precast's plant on Fifty Road at Highway 8 employs 15 people making concrete wall panels and park furniture.

The ministry said Imperial Precast violated the Environmental Protection and Ontario Water Resources acts between September 2002 and June 2004 by allowing cement dust to drift over neighbouring homes, releasing contaminated process water into a ditch that drains into Fifty-Mile Creek, discharging sewage from an outdoor tank without a permit and using a cement-storage silo without approval.

Waugh was told nearby residents had complained and that the creek provides habitat for both fish and birds.

Complaints in 2002 led to a ministry order prohibiting outdoor sandblasting at the plant. Imperial appealed to the Environmental Review Tribunal, but settled by agreeing to build an enclosure.

Monday's fines against the company totalled $50,000. Sciullo was fined $6,000 for the environmental offences and $2,000 for providing false or misleading information to the ministry officer last May