Written by Peter McIntyre Wednesday, 25 September 2013 13:08
The Regional District of North Okanagan has been found guilty of not doing enough to prevent a water contamination case three years ago. The government agency was found guilty of four charges under the BC Water Act and Drinking Water Protection Act by provincial court judge Mayland McKimm. Sentencing will take place October 16th, when the district will likely face a fine.The District of Coldstream pled guilty to similiar charges in 2012 and was fined $18,400. Mahyor Jim Garlick said at that time, they didn't feel they did anything wrong, but didn't believe that defending the charges in court was a prudent use of taxpayer's money. The Antwerp Springs well in Coldstream became contaminated with livestock effluent on January 13,2010, leading to a do not drink order for 1,800 residents of Lavington and Coldstream. No illnesses were reported as a result, but one resident described the water in their home as smelling like manure and having strands of effluent in it. The incident was a result of a Lavington farmer spreading manure on top of snow in his fields, followed by warm weather melting the snow and rain causing heavy run-off, which led to the effluent getting into the well and then being distributed to homes.
RDNO argued that it did "due dilligence" to prevent the incident, but Judge Mckimm disagreed. "For over a decade, the district was aware of concerns about a cross connection, and they did not install a back flow and nor did they take any other steps to minimize the risk," read the judge. They continued to put the users at risk." MacKimm also says the "fail safe" system the district relied on, a chlorine analyzer, was "flawed." The regional district owned and managed the water system, which was operated by Coldstream. The decision came after a six day trial, which was spread out over several months.
RDNO lawyer Rob Bruneau says they're "disappointed" in the ruling and "anticipated a different result." Bruneau relaizes RDNO could have followed Coldstream's lead and pled guilty, but he says they chose not to. "After a conviction you always think it's a preferable route to if you had of pled guilty, but our difficulty was that the regional district didn't believe that they had acted without due diligence, and if you don't believe you've acted without due diligence, it would be improper to plead guilty. You can't pled guilty to an offence and then turn around and say we were duly diligent." Bruneau says he wil argue that the regional district be fined around the same amount as Coldstream -- 18-thousand dollars -- when sentencing is held next month.
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