February 8, 2002

New Brunswick Telegraph Journal

Moncton charged with violating Fisheries Act

Environment Canada has laid charges against the City of Moncton accusing it of violating the federal Fisheries Act.

The city is accused of unlawfully depositing a harmful substance into water inhabited by fish. The charge relates to a former city landfill located on the banks of the Petitcodiac River.

Environment officials say leachate forms when rainwater passes through the landfill. Contaminated water then seeps out of the landfill and into Jonathon Creek and the river.

Besides the city, charges were also laid against Geoff Greenough, Moncton’s commissioner of Engineering and Public Works and Gemtec, the local engineering consulting firm the city hired in 1993 to develop a closure plan for the landfill.

Gemtec employee Robert Lutes was also charged.

The four parties will appear in provincial court April 3.