FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NO LEGAL CHARGES TO BE LAID REGARDING MT. HERBERT FISH KILL INCIDENT

CHARLOTTETOWN - May 17, 2001 - Environment Canada investigators will not proceed with legal charges regarding the Mt. Herbert fish kill incident which occurred during the summer of 2000. They have just finished their investigation and have concluded that the farmer involved had done the right things to try to prevent such a fish kill from occurring.

Forty-two dead trout were recovered from Fullerton’s Creek following a thunderstorm which passed over the area in August, 2000. Although the source of the fish kill was identified, the investigators found that there were mitigating circumstances.

David Aggett, Manager of Environment Canada’s Office of Enforcement in Halifax, said, "each case is investigated on its own merits and in this one it was decided that the farmer involved was not negligent. He had taken steps to prevent a fish kill from occurring, but the runoff which resulted from the unusually heavy rainfall nullified the management practices which were put in place to work under normal circumstances."

The farmer was using a leased field and this was the first time that it was planted in row crops. In addition he did not know that the buffer zone which was in place contained an overgrown ditch and culvert. During the thunderstorm it was the ditch and culvert which channeled runoff to Fullerton’s Creek.

David Aggett said that Environment Canada enforcement officers will be at work in P.E.I. again this summer conducting inspections of livestock and row crop operations. They will also be investigating any fish kills or other offences which may occur.

Environment Canada reminds land users of the recent decision by Judge Ralph Thompson in the Kyle Murray case of 1999 in which he stated "the tragic events of 1999 and the subsequently enacted legislation restricting land use near watercourses, in the Court’s view, have raised the standard of care required of land users, be they farmers or otherwise. Practices which constituted due diligence in 1999 may well not suffice in the event of future similar occurrences".

For further information contact :
David Aggett, Manager of the Office of Enforcement
Environment Canada, Atlantic region
(902) 426-1925
(902) 483-5618