Farming company convicted and fined $31,000 under Ontario Water Resources Act and Nutrient Management Act

December 06, 2022

Environment, Conservation and Parks

Convicted – 1013022 Ontario Inc.

Location – Haldimand County Court

Description of Offence –The two convictions are for permitting the discharge of liquid manure into a watercourse or in any waters which may impair the quality of the water and for applying liquid manure during the restricted period and failing to incorporate the material into the soil within the same day

Date of Offence – On or about December 13, 2018

Date of Conviction – October 26, 2022

Penalty Imposed – 1013022 Ontario Inc. was convicted of two violations, one under the Ontario Water Resources Act (OWRA), and the second under the Nutrient Management Act (NMA), and was fined a total of $31,000, plus a victim fine surcharge of $7,750, with 24 months to pay.

Background –

  • 1013022 Ontario Inc. is a company registered to a rural property on Diltz Road in Dunnville, and the company owns and/or leases other farms in the Dunnville area which are used as liquid agricultural source material receiving sites.
  • The company operates a dairy cattle farm operation capable of generating greater than 300 nutrient units (NU) of agricultural source materials (ASM) annually.
  • The company is required to have a Nutrient Management Plan under the NMA and must comply with land application standards under Ontario Regulation 267/03. The ASM generated by the company includes liquid manure and milking centre wash water, which is stored in a lagoon at the Diltz Road farm.
  • Section 52.5 of the regulation prescribes the requirements for the application of ASM during the “restricted period” that begins December 1 and ends on March 31 of the following year, or during times when the soil is snow-covered or frozen.
  • On December 12, 2018, the ministry received a report of slippery road conditions, potentially due to liquid manure being tracked onto Hines Rd. On the following day, ministry staff attended the site to conduct an inspection.
  • During the inspection, it was observed that a brown liquid was flowing from a farm field to a culvert under Hines Rd. and entering a drainage ditch along the west side. The material appeared to be a mixture of melt water and manure.
  • It was also noted that the field was saturated and that it appeared that the manure spreader may have travelled through a flow path in the field which leads to the Hines Rd. culvert without shutting off manure flow.
  • Samples of the culvert surface water, from the flow path between the field and culvert, and from the surface water up and down stream from the drainage ditch were collected.
  • Inspectors observed that the liquid manure spread on the farm property had not been incorporate and snow was on the field from the night before, suggesting that the liquid manure was not incorporated on the same day as the application, as required under the regulation.
  • Evaluation by a ministry expert determined that water samples collected on December 13, 2018, contained elevated E. coli, representing a public health risk from passive transfer and rendered the water unsuitable for livestock and or for irrigation. Further, the expert identified total ammonia at concentrations, which could be lethal to aquatic life, and high concentrations of total phosphorus that would contribute to harmful and nuisance causing algal blooms.
  • The ministry’s Environmental Investigations and Enforcement Branch investigated and laid charges which resulted in the convictions.