September 3, 2008

Cangra Natural Stones Inc. Sentenced To Pay A $9,000 Penalty For Water Pollution

Cangra Natural Stones Inc. of Black Point, Nova Scotia was sentenced to a penalty of $9,000 in the Provincial Court in Halifax for violating subsection 36(3) of the Fisheries Act. The penalty consists of a fine of $2,000 and a court ordered payment of $7,000 to the Environmental Damages Fund.

On July 21, 2008, the company pleaded guilty to one charge of depositing a deleterious substance into waters frequented by fish. The charge resulted from a July 2007 release of processing wastewater into St. Margaret’s Bay, Nova Scotia. 

This conviction was based on information obtained by Environment Canada’s Environmental Enforcement Division in the Atlantic Region during an investigation that was initiated as a result of a complaint it received.  The illegal discharge was confirmed during an inspection by enforcement officers who observed wastewater, a bi-product of stone cutting, being deliberately diverted from the company’s holding tank into St. Margaret’s Bay.  An analysis of the wastewater samples found it to be high in concentrations of metals which are harmful to fish.