The ship-breaking operation in Union Bay has been issued administrative penalties by the province for unauthorized effluent discharge, along with failing to remedy that issue after the province informed them of it.
The province initially issued the penalties on Sept. 10, 2024, giving Deep Water Recovery Ltd. (DWR) 30 days to respond to the penalties. On seven dates in 2023 and 2024, the Ministry of Environment and Parks found that the operation "caused or allowed waste to be introduced to the environment," and subsequently failed to cease the release of that discharge. Two final determinations on the subject were published by the ministry on Dec. 12, fining the company $26,700 for the effluent discharges, and $19,450 for not ceasing the discharge.
According to the report, between Sept. 29, Nov. 3, Nov. 30, Dec. 20, and Dec. 28, 2023, and on Jan. 10 and Feb. 1, 2024, effluent was introduced to the environment by DWR in a number of sumps the company has on-site.
DWR contested this in its reply to the ministry, saying that the ministry's definition of effluent "implies some form of active discharge of material, which they noted is simply not the case concerning DWR鈥檚 operations. The alleged 鈥榚ffluent鈥� at DWR鈥檚 property consists of rainwater and surface water runoff, which DWR has no active role in creating. As such, the surface runoff should not be characterized as 鈥榚ffluent鈥� and should not contravene the EMA (Environmental Management Act)."
DWR also said there is "widespread, historic contamination in the larger Union Bay region," and that any effluent from DWR is "minuscule relative to the contribution from the adjacent lands."
In his final determination, the director for the Environmental Management Act Jason Bourgeois wrote that "While Baynes Sound may be historically or currently impacted by other activities, the samples collected by the ministry were not from Baynes Sound but from the effluent at the facility that discharges to Baynes Sound.
"Further, I don鈥檛 need to find that it caused all the contamination in Baynes Sound, only that it contributed," he added.
Bourgeois' report did determine that the initial classification of the event was too harsh, and he reduced the potential adverse effect rating from medium-high to medium. This reduced the base penalty from $30,000 to $20,000. Other penalties were also reduced from the initial report, notably for the economic benefit derived by DWR, which was dropped from a $10,800 fine to a $5,700 fine. In total, the fine for the contraventions was reduced from $48,300 to $26,700.
A second penalty for not ceasing the operation was also issued. The ministry tested the effluent from one sump at the site on June 26, 2024, after the initial fine was levied, and found that "effluent exceedances were 15,933 per cent (copper) and 1,249 per cent (zinc) over the acute B.C WQGs (water quality guidelines). Effluent exceedances were 23,950 percent (copper), 1,200 per cent (lead) and 7,320 per cent (zinc) and over the chronic B.C. WQGs."
"DWR failed to immediately cease the release or discharge of effluent with concentrations of copper, lead and zinc above the B.C. WQGs to the environment, as required by PAO requirement 1," Bourgeois' report says. "I find that this non-compliance undermines the basic integrity of the overarching regulatory regime and significantly interferes with the ministry鈥檚 capacity to regulate."
The fine for the failure to comply was decreased from the initial fine because DWR did make some efforts to prevent reoccurrence by improving its sump sites; originally it was set at $23,879 but reduced to $19,450.
