Hamilton company ordered to pay $175K for dumping contaminated water into Lake Ontario

A Hamilton company will pay $175,000 to a federal environmental damages fund after dumping sediment-contaminated water harmful to fish into Lake Ontario almost five years ago.

The payout comes as a court-recommended alternative to environmental charges laid against the Barclay Construction Group Inc., which have since been stayed, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) said in a release Tuesday.

In June 2018, enforcement officers with the federal agency noticed a pump near Hamilton's Pier 12 that was removing water from an excavation site and depositing contaminated sediments into the lake.

An investigation later found Barclay was responsible for the dangerous spill, ECCC said, which was a violation of the Fisheries Act. Lab results showed the contaminated water dumped contained substances harmful to fish.

It's unclear how much contaminated water was dumped into the harbour.

Beyond the payout, the Morley Street company agreed to promote lessons learned from the incident - particularly how to effectively deploy environmental management systems - at a future open house and construction industry conference. It also committed to developing a standard operating procedure for spill containment and cleanup.

Sebastian Bron is a reporter at The Spectator. sbron@thespec.com