This good news comes to us from the Waterkeeper Alliance. Environmental enforcement is not out of fashion yet. Michigan communities on the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers, among others, should benefit fromt his initiative to stop chemical spills and prosecute their sources.
Kennedy applauds McGuinty, Dombrowsky announcement
October 8, 2004
For immediate release
Contact: Mark Mattson
President & Waterkeeper
416.861.1237
(Toronto) – The Province of Ontario announced this morning that it intends
to pass new legislation creating a streamlined process for investigating and
charging industrial polluters. This legislation will enable the government
to more effectively punish industrial polluters and compensate affected
communities without watering down the current environmental laws in the
province.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr, president of Waterkeeper Alliance, applauded the
move: “This announcement signals a renewed commitment to enforcing Canada’senvironmental laws and an end to the race to the bottom for lower standards in North America,” he said.
Over the past year, numerous Waterkeeper programs on the Great Lakes have
been openly critical of the Ontario government for failing to take steps to
address the epidemic of industrial spills in Sarnia’s “chemical valley.”
These groups include Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, the St. Clair Channelkeeper,
the Detroit Riverkeeper and the Canadian Detroit Riverkeeper.
“There are thousands of spills in Ontario every single year. Until now,
one-time pollution incidents were difficult to investigate and even more
difficult for government to prosecute. All that changed today,” says Mark
Mattson, the Canadian board member for Waterkeeper Alliance.
A major beneficiary of these new rules will be U.S. communities downstream
from Canadian polluters, such as those on the St. Clair River. It is not yet
clear whether compensation will include funding for water quality monitoring
equipment, one of the key requests in these communities.
A backgrounder on the Sarnia spills is available on Lake Ontario
Waterkeeper’s web site:
http://www.waterkeeper.ca/lok/index.cfm?DSP=showletter&NewsID=1298
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