Second Shoe Falls: Flyrock Discharge After Castonguay

The Ontario Ministry of the Environment is aggressively prosecuting blasting firms for flyrock incidents that occurred years before the Supreme Court decided, last fall, that flyrock did, after all, have to be reported to the MOE. And now companies are being convicted and fined for discharging the flyrock at all, not just for failing to report it to the MOE. This is the next step on the slippery slope that we feared. If every flyrock discharge that flies through the air, and does damage, is a "pollution" offence, what else is? And what isn't?

The latest defendant is Austin Powder Ltd., which has been fined $130,000 after pleading guilty to discharging fly rock from a quarry blasting site and to failing to report the flyrock incidents, contrary to the Environmental Protection Act.