INNISFAIL - A bulk container reconditioning and recycling company headquartered in Innisfail has been fined after it pled guilty Nov. 26 to contravening Alberta’s Water Act.
The company, 1656758 Alberta Inc. operating under Enviro Container and Cleaning Solutions Inc., was sentenced in Alberta Court of Justice in Red Deer to a fine of $12,000, inclusive of a victim fine surcharge.
Between Oct. 12, 2021 and April 29, 2022, the company diverted water from a well accessing several aquifers without a licence, according to an agreed statement of facts.
On April 29, 2022 an Alberta Environment and Protected Areas officer inspected Enviro Container’s new site near Blackfalds in Red Deer County.
According to the agreed statement of facts, during the inspection, the officer observed that Enviro Container was washing and processing empty plastic totes -- each tote being a plastic container that can sit on a standard pallet and can store about 1,000 litres of liquid or solid.
Alberta Environment learned that Enviro Container was using well water to wash up to 300 totes per day at the site, and that washing activities at the site had commenced in approximately October 2021.
The water well the company was using was never registered as a commercial water well so Enviro Container was using water diverted from the well without an appropriate licence.
“Given the way that the water well was drilled, water was being drawn from multiple aquifers or underground sources of water. In Alberta, a commercial water well licence can only draw water from a single aquifer or source point. A separate water well would have been needed for each aquifer or underground layer of water from which water was being drawn in this well,” the agreed statement of facts stated.
The nature of the aquifer under the property currently makes it unfeasible for Enviro Container to drill a water well for commercial registration at the site and the company has had to make alternate arrangements to obtain water to conduct its activities including washing containers at a cost.
As a part of the creative sentencing, $11,500 of Enviro Container's fine will go towards supporting the Canada WaterPortal Society to modernize its website and promote information about groundwater, focusing on Alberta and the Red Deer watershed, according to a pres release issued Friday.