Ingersoll Fined $100,000 From the MNR

Wednesday, 25 January 2017 at 11:48

The fine stems from a multi million dollar street project that was done in 2014 on Holcroft street.

INGERSOLL - The Town of Ingersoll is going to have to pay a $100,000 fine to the Ministry of Environment.

The fine stems from a multi million dollar street project that was done in 2014 on Holcroft street. It involved the installation of a sanitary sewer, water mains and storm sewers and the Town received a permit to take water from the site. Mayor Ted Comiskey admits the Town is ultimately at fault and they have launched an investigation to see where the blame lies.

"The investigation is still ongoing by us and through the people that we had contracted for the job and our advisors to see where the actual fault lies. Certainly we had called upon folks to looking into this and look after this for us, so we have to find out where that fault lies and make sure that this never happens again."

Water containing sediment was also taken from the construction site and discharged into a storm sewer by the contractors hired to do the job. The fine was given because Ingersoll did not notify the ministry of the discharge or impact on the creek. Comiskey says basically they extended the number of days that were allowed for discharging water.

"What we did was ended up extending the number of days that were allowed to draw on the water and the amount and what happened is the Ministry came in and said you have extended your amount of draw. It's hard to determine as such what is rain water, what is surface water, what is ground water when you are that deep. We had a lot of rain that year, this was two years ago and what it was, was the drawing of the water. What should of happened I suppose is we should have stopped but it would have been a 5 week or so wait to extend the license and what it was is the failure to notify the ministry that the flow was going into the local creek. We understand that we were in the wrong."

Comiskey says they are not taking this fine lightly.

"We are deeply saddened by this as a town, we don't like to see these things happen and so we are very concerned and want to make sure it doesn't happen again."