Province pleads not guilty in Lemon Creek fuel spill case
By John Boivin
A lawyer for the BC government says provincial officials are pleading not guilty to charges they are responsible for a jet fuel spill in a Slocan Valley creek in 2013.
Lawyers for all the involved parties gathered by conference call before a judge in a Nelson courtroom Tuesday morning.
The provincial government, fuel company Executive Flight Centre and one of its employees are all co-defendants in the case.
The company and driver did not enter pleas.
The charges stem from an incident when a tanker truck carrying aviation fuel up a logging road in the Slocan Valley tipped over and spilled 33,000 litres of fuel into Lemon Creek.
Crown prosecutor John Cliffe told Judge Phillip Seagram the trial was likely to take 4-6 weeks, with more than 60 witnesses likely to be called. The case first began in September 2016, but the trial has been set back several times as the Crown and defence wade through volumes of evidence.
The judge asked all lawyers to try to agree to a set of admissions, or agreed facts, to possibly reduce the number of witnesses needed.
The court heard that civil lawsuits between the defendants are complicating the issue, leaving all parties wary of exposing themselves to damages.
The July 2013 spill killed fish and wildlife downstream, and affected shallow wells of residents living in the area. Residents were also forced to evacuate their homes while the cleanup took place.
It took nearly three years for charges to be laid, and only came after a local activist, Marilyn Burgoon, successfully laid private criminal charges against the defendants. Her win in court prompted the federal government to lay charges last July.
The defendants have been charged with two counts of “depositing a deleterious substance in a water frequented by fish” under the Fisheries Act. The penalty on conviction is a minimum of $5,000 for an individual and $100,000 for the government or a company.
There are also six counts of “introducing waste into a stream causing pollution” under the Environmental Management Act. The maximum penalty set out in the Act is a $1-million fine or six months in jail.
The lawyers and judge will reconvene on March 7 by conference call to try to move the case forward.