Superintendent Fined $10,000 for Lying to Officials about Buried Drums

Workers came across two 45-gallon drums of unknown material in the company yard. A superintendent told them to bury the two drums using a loader. The MOE received information that drums containing an unknown substance were buried at the property. MOE investigators took a statement from the superintendent in which he denied any personal involvement in the burial of the drums and claimed the workers had uncovered already buried drums while cleaning up the yard, had covered them back up and hadn’t told company management about the discovery. These statements were false. The superintendent pleaded guilty to giving false or misleading information in a statement to a provincial officer in violation of the Environmental Protection Act and was fined $10,000 [Stanley Farnsworth, Govt. News Release, Sept. 7, 2016].