Owner of Dry Cleaner First to Be Sentenced to Jail for PERC Violations

During investigations of a dry cleaner, Environment and Climate Change Canada enforcement officers found evidence of improper storage and handling of tetrachloroethylene (commonly known as PERC) waste. The owner of the business pleaded guilty to violating the federal Tetrachloroethylene (Use in Dry Cleaning and Reporting Requirements) Regulations under CEPA 1999. Dry cleaning businesses operated by this owner had been the subject of two previous convictions for dry cleaning’related offences. As a result, he became the first dry cleaner to face imprisonment under these regulations. He will serve a four’month conditional sentence, in the form of 75 days of house arrest followed by a curfew, and an additional 60 hours of community service. And he was ordered to pay for and publish an article in an industry magazine outlining the facts relating to the commission of the offences and the details of the punishment imposed [Ali Eldin, Govt. News Release, Feb. 29, 2016].