A trucking company has been fined $175,000 for an oil spill in Lemon Creek in the Slocan Valley near Nelson.
An estimated 35,000 litres of jet fuel was spilled into the creek on July 26, 2013. The truck that spilled fuel into the creek was destined for helicopters fighting a forest fire in the area.
The spill contaminated the waterway that is a tributary of the Slocan River and led to residential evacuations.
Executive Flight Centre Fuel Services Ltd, a Calgary-based trucking company, plead guilty to one count of a deleterious deposit into waters frequented by fish.
The spill also cost the trucking company approximately $5 million in clean-up costs.
In July 2016, charges were laid against the fuel truck driver, the trucking company and the Province of British Columbia under the provincial Environmental Management Act and the federal Fisheries Act.
The majority of the fine – $165,000 – will be directed to the Environmental Damages Fund to be used for fish habitat conservation in the Slocan Valley.
The fuel truck driver, Danny Lasante, was convicted of one count of introducing waste into environment causing pollution, and was fined $20,000.
Half of that fine will be directed to the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation, and is due in 2021.
The Province of BC was acquitted of all charges related to the spill.
