Statutory Right To Compensation For Remediation Applies To Spills Occurring Before The Right Was In Force

On March 6, 2017 Superior Court Judge P.E. Roger ruled in Huang v. Fraser Hillary's Ltd., 2017 ONSC 1500 that section 99 of Ontario's Environmental Protection Act R.S.O. 1990, c.E19 allowed the plaintiffs to recover compensation against a neighbouring dry cleaning business for remedial expenses for the tetrachloroethylene ( PCE,PERC) and trichlorethylene (TCE) contamination of soils and groundwater on the plaintiff's property. The statutory right under s.99 is confined to spills which are defined in s.91(1) of the Act as "from, or out of, a structure, vehicle or other container". Fault or negligence is not a requirement of the statutory right to compensation under s.99. The evidence established that the PCE/TCE moved from a structure or container into the natural environment for a 14 year period between 1960-1974.The right to compensation in the Act was introduced in 1979 and only proclaimed in 1985 after the "spills" had stopped. The Court decided that applying