April 3, 2002

The Moncton Times and Transcript

City faces Fisheries Act charges

The City of Moncton’s lawyers will appear in court at 9:30 a.m. today to respond to charges the city violated the federal Fisheries Act. The city is accused of unlawfully depositing a deleterious substance in water inhabited by fish in relation to the old landfill located on the banks of the Petitcodiac River. Leachate formed when rainwater passes through the landfill and becomes contaminated seeps out of the landfill and into Jonathon Creek and the river.

Charges were laid in February after an investigation that lasted more than a year. David Aggett, manager of enforcement and environmental protection ** services with Environment Canada, was in charge of the investigation and he said their tests found the leachate that was seeping into the river was acutely lethal to fish. Besides the city, Moncton’s commissioner of Engineering and Public Works Geoff Greenough, Gemtec, the local engineering consulting firm the city hired in 1993 to develop a closure plan for the landfill and Gemtec employee Robert Lutes have also been charged and will respond to those charges in court this morning.