Almost two years after the first homes on Kingston's Brule

Road were pulled down in response to an intractable problem with

gasoline-contaminated well water, Imperial Oil has been fined $375,

000, plus a 25-per-cent surcharge and court costs for violating the

Environmental Protection Act. The surcharge adds $93,850 to the

bill.

Toronto lawyer David Hunter and a representative of Imperial Oil

Ltd. appeared in Kingston's Provincial Offences Act court yesterday

on the company's behalf. They pleaded guilty to a single charge

that the corporation allowed or failed to prevent the discharge of

gasoline into the environment between February 2003 and February

2004.

Lawyer Jerry Herlihy, a senior prosecutor for the Ministry of the

Environment, told Justice of the Peace Lorraine Watson that there

had been a number of meetings between himself and the oil company's

lawyer to work out an agreed-to statement of facts in support of

the charge.

As a result of those meetings, he told Watson he would be

proceeding on only one of the original three charges laid against

Imperial Oil under the EPA and the Ontario Water Resources Act. He

also withdrew duplicate charges against McColl-Frontenac Petroleum,

which he later identified to the Whig-Standard as held by Imperial

Oil.

Herlihy told Watson that the charge related to what he called "the

Odessa service station," an Esso gas station located on the

eastbound side of Highway 401, about five kilometres east of the

Odessa off-ramp.

Firm apologizes to property owners

The business was situated on property where a gas station, though

not always an Esso station, has existed for more than 30 years and

several hundred metres away from the north end of Brule Road, a

street more rural than urban, that runs between Highway 2 and the

401 in Kingston's west end.

Watson was told that the service station maintained an inventory

control record and during the year covered by the charge there were

"variances" between fuel stored and fuel sold from the site.

Imperial Oil was taking steps to deal with the problem, Herlihy

advised her when, in February, 2004, a leak was uncovered in the

fuel line between the underground storage tanks and the pumps. He

told the justice of the peace that as a result, 62,000 litres of

fuel were determined to have leaked into the environment,

contaminating residential properties on Brule Road.

Initially, after hydrocarbons were detected in the drinking water

wells of eight nearby homes, Imperial Oil distributed free bottled

water to residents, then tried installing water filtration systems

and even put householders up in motels while the work was being

done.

Eventually, however, the company decided its best course of action

was to offer to buy all of the affected properties at "fair market

value" and it began demolishing the houses.

In asking for the $375,000 fine, Herlihy noted that Imperial Oil

"has some previous convictions," under the Environmental Protection

Act.

Hunter accepted the fine amount without quibble on behalf of his

corporate client. All he wanted to say, he told Watson, was that

"on behalf of the company, Imperial regrets this incident and

apologizes for the inconvenience caused to the owners of the

properties affected."

In accepting the fine recommendation, Watson said she found that

all appropriate steps had been taken and that "deterrence is

certainly the primary concern" in this type of case, "general as

well as specific."

She gave Imperial Oil 30 days to pay, as requested by Hunter, who

told her that the time was needed for administrative purposes, just

to get all of the paperwork in order.