Environment and Climate Change Canada reports that, on May 21, 2020, Scamp Industries Ltd., a fuel supplier based in Western Canada, was fined $200,000 in the Provincial Court of British Columbia after pleading guilty on June 17, 2019, to five counts of transferring petroleum products into a storage-tank system where storage-tank-system identification numbers were not visible.
This action is contrary to subparagraph 29(b)(i) of the Storage Tank Systems for Petroleum Products and Allied Petroleum Products Regulations, made pursuant to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999. The penalty will be directed to the Government of Canada’s Environmental Damages Fund.
The Regulatory Framework
The Storage Tank Systems for Petroleum Products and Allied Petroleum Products Regulations, which came into force in 2008, help reduce the risk of releases of petroleum products from storage-tank systems located on federal or Indigenous land (referred to as aboriginal land in the Regulations) and from systems operated by or that provide a service to federal works or that are operated or owned by the Crown.
The Regulations apply to storage-tank systems with a capacity of more than 230 litres, which contain petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel, and home-heating oil, or allied petroleum products.
The Storage Tank Systems for Petroleum Products and Allied Petroleum Products Regulations require that owners identify their storage-tank systems to Environment and Climate Change Canada before operating the system.
Background
In March 2015, Environment and Climate Change Canada enforcement officers inspected several gas stations on federal and Indigenous land in the south-central area of British Columbia, including the Kamloops and Salmon Arm areas, to monitor compliance with the Regulations. During these inspections, the enforcement officers found that Scamp Industries Ltd. had been delivering fuel to a number of unregistered tank systems and a number of tank systems that did not display the required identification numbers.
In January 2013, Scamp Industries Ltd. was issued a written warning for delivering fuel to a gas station in Chilliwack, which had not registered its storage-tank systems with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
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Manning Environmental Law is a Canadian law firm based in Toronto, Ontario. Our practice is focussed on environmental law, energy law and aboriginal law.
Paul Manning is a certified specialist in environmental law. He has been named as one of the World’s Leading Environmental Lawyers and one of the World’s Leading Climate Change Lawyers by Who’s Who Legal. Paul is also ranked by Lexpert as one of Canada’s Leading Practitioners in Environmental Law.
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