Nearly 30 years ago, Environmental Risk-Communication Expert, Dr. Peter Sandman wrote, “If you make a list of environmental risks in order of how many people they kill each year, then list them again in order of how alarming they are to the general public, the two lists will be very different.” This is far from an apples-to-apples comparison (different time frame, different countries, subjective search terms, and different issues, to name a few), but they help illustrate...
Read MorePERC and TCE Releases
A couple of common bad environmental actors (i.e., toxic chemicals) have been in the news again recently. One news story should be a heads up for a specific industry, and the other news story is about an ongoing concern for residents of a small community. Dry Cleaner Fined About a year and a half ago, my colleague, Andrew Tymec, P.Eng., wrote a blog about enforcement actions at dry cleaners across Canada. In the blog, Andrew said, in part, “If you have dry-cleaning...
Read More“Innocence” When It Comes to Environmental Liability Means Nothing
As it relates to environmental liability in Ontario, my colleagues and I have, for several years, discussed how to best protect our clients from the creeping environmental liability in the province. For example, two years ago we wrote an article in Environmental Science and Engineering Magazine, “Property owners need to be concerned about clean up liability following the Kawartha Lakes spill.” We called the Kawartha Lakes Decision a potential game changer. In our November...
Read MoreGroundwater Contamination: Proving Your Position
We are often asked by lawyers if we can determine when a chemical release occurred or help determine who is responsible for a release. This can be important in allocating responsibility for contaminated groundwater, especially when more than one party may have released the same chemical from the same or a nearby location. To gain some insight regarding how you might go about dating a release or understanding complex groundwater conditions, we are providing a short question...
Read MoreRecent Environmental Litigation and Fines
As we wind down the year, we wanted to share just a couple of recent news items relating to fines/penalties/litigation associated with environmental releases. $1.3 Million for PHC Contamination Proving who is responsible for contaminated soil/groundwater has been one of the mainstays for Dragun since 1988 (working directly with lawyers). The recent case regarding a site in Toronto was not so much of a who-is-responsible mystery as much as a case of neglect. The site from...
Read MoreEnvironmental Remediation Frustrations
When groundwater or soil remediation efforts are not going as planned, the culprit is typically a poorly designed Conceptual Site Model (CSM) or the lack of a CSM. Over the past 25 plus years of conducting peer reviews, Dragun has seen poorly designed CSMs or the lack of a CSM again and again. In fact, this is such an important issue that, over the past year, we have been providing a series of Environmental Minutes “Eight Keys to Successful Environmental Remediation.” In...
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