FORT NELSON, B.C. — The BC Environmental Assessment Office has issued a warning to an Alberta-based company for its handling of a landfill for hazardous materials from oil and gas activities approximately 20 kilometres south of Fort Nelson.
On June 27th, a compliance and enforcement officer, Giovanni Casponi, inspected the Northern Rockies Secure Landfill — formerly owned and operated by Tervita Corporation before being acquired by Secure Energy in a merger.
Four non-compliances were found during the inspection, including not submitting annual reports to the Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) in 2021 and 2022, not giving Doig River First Nation a tour, not treating potential contact water as leachate and not installing sufficient fencing to prevent wildlife from entering the landfill.
Leachate is water that filters through wastes in a landfill, which draws out chemicals or materials from the waste.
Seven other areas of the inspection were found to comply with the EAC.
The maximum penalty for failure to comply with an EAC is $1,000,000, and on each subsequent conviction, a fine of no more than $2,000,000.
The EAO Compliance and Enforcement branch will continue to monitor these issues and may follow up with further inspections.
Future or continued non-compliance may result in additional enforcement action against Secure Energy.
The company was issued an EAC on March 31st, 2009, for a secure landfill for the long-term storage of up to 2,200,000 cubic metres of hydrocarbon and salt-contaminated materials generated from oil and gas activities.
The full inspection record can be found below:
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