communautaire Le lien community link The Embrun Chevaliers de Colomb : souper fèves au lard et macaroni, le vendredi 13 mars, à 17h. Repas servi par le traiteur Viau Catering. Gratuit pour les enfants de 10 ans et moins qui sont accompagnés d’un adulte. Conférence pour les aînés, Vieil- lir chez soi, Respirez... pour votre santé! Atelier sur la respiration op- timale. Le 18 mars, 9h30 à 10h30, Centre de santé communautaire de l’Estrie 738, Notre-Dame, Embrun. Entrée gratuite. Place limitées. Ins- criptions : 613 443-3888 Casselman Tournoi de hockey communau- taire de Casselman du 29 mars au 4 avril. Date limite d’ inscription: 24 mars. Inscription en ligne. www. tournoiscasselman.com Contact: Luc Belisle 613-229-4940 Andre Benson 613-913-4600. tournoicas- selman@gmail.com Souper de danse country, orga- nisé par le Club de Danse de Cassel- man, le 13mars, salle des Chevaliers de Colomb, 653 rue St-Isidore, Cas- selman. Danse en ligne, sociale et de groupe. Souper à 18h. Réservations avant le 11mars: Guylaine, 613-764- 5218, ou Gisele, 613-764-5559. Russell Russell Library : eBook clinics free. February 26, 6:00 pm to 8:00 p.m. March 26, 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Staff will be available to help down- load free eBooks on your computer, tablet or eReader. 1053, Concession, in Russell. St-Albert Whist militaire à St-Albert par le Club de danse de Casselman, le dimanche le 22 mars à 13h30, au Centre récréatif de St-Albert. Prix de présence et souper. Réservations avant le 15mars. Gisèle Séguin, 613- 764-5559, ou Gisèle Adam, 613-764- 3416. Limoges Le conseiller Francis Brière convie la population de Limoges pour un compte rendu de la situation depuis son élection dans le quartier 4. Le 26 mars, au centre communautaire de Limoges (école), 19h. St-Isidore Les Scouts de Fournier orga- nisent un souper spaghetti, le 29 mars prochain, de 17h à 19h, à l’Aréna de St-Isidore. Ils procède- ront alors aux tirages d’un voyage dans le Sud, une fin de semaine dans les Laurentides et un prix de $100. Des billets sont encore disponibles. Renseignements: Chantal Séguin, 613-673-2341 ou Johanne Groulx, 613-673-9244.
DOSS I ER
Local dairy plant waits for sentencing
GREGG CHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
Owners and staff at Cochrane’s Dairy Ltd. won’t know until at least the summer what kind of penalties may result from a provincial court ruling on illegal dump- ing charges. Both the Crown and defence counsels may end up arguing whether or not the court should allow clemency to rule in the situation. Provincial court Judge Catherine Kehoe found Cochrane’s Dairy Ltd., and its present owner/operator, Barry Cochrane, guilty on Feb. 11, 2015, of illegal dumping of waste- water, including milk solids and cleaning fluids, into the Castor River near the Village of Russell, based on an Environment Canada investigation that took place in 2012. Sen- tencing on the charges is adjourned until June for Crown and defence counsels to prepare and present their arguments. Federal prosecutor Emilie Taman and de- fence counsel Robert Houston have different views about how results of the sentencing hearing should work out. «I’ll be seeking a fine,» said Taman, during a phone interview. «I would say a considerable fine.» «Technically, Cochrane Dairies and my client have broken the rules,» saidHouston, during a phone interview. «But Crown has maintained a perspective on penalty that I find oppressive.» Houston noted that the Fisheries Act, un- der which the company and Cochrane were charged, allows the court some flexibility in deciding what kind of penalties to apply. He emphasized that he is not arguing whether or not there should be penalties once the court has rendered a guilty verdict in the matter. His concern is that the Crown seeks penalties out of proportion to the case and, as a result, would bankrupt the corporation. Environment Canada, through its fish- eries branch, filed five charges under the federal Fisheries Act against the Russell- based dairy company and its owner follow- ing results of an investigation that began
Environment Canada took samples from this section of the Castor River as part of an investigation of wastewater disposal at Cochrane Dairy Ltd. (Environment Canada photo)
in August 2012 and continued through to November that same year.The charges con- cerned dumping of suspected wastewater from the company’s dairy-processing plant into the Castor River, which flows through both the villages of Russell and Embrun in Russell Township and joins downstream with the South Nation River which empties into the Ottawa River near Plantagenet. Comments and evidence from both Crown and defence counsels prior to and during the trial indicate the investigation revealed at least two facts that may have been surprising to the dairy company’s present owner/operator. Cochrane’s Dairy Ltd. was founded in the 1930s by Elwood Cochrane, who expanded the existing family business of providing local meat, eggs, and cream to markets in nearby Ottawa by building amilk-processing facility in Russell to pasteurize and bottle milk from local dairies for sale in both the
township and neighbouring Ottawa. Co- chrane’s Dairy Ltd.’s business has grown to the point where it supplies milk and milk products through both home delivery and to schools, restaurants, daycares and stores in the Russell and Ottawa areas. Houston revealed that his client, Barry Cochrane, was not aware of the wastewater disposal design set up for the dairy plant when it was built. An underground pipe systemcarried wastewater fromcleaning the vats to the Castor River. Barry Cochrane was under the impression that the pipe system led to a septic field setup. «It’s not clear, even after seven or eight decades, how the system was originally designed,» Houston told the Reflet News . “Someone constructed a pipe. The record is not clear now, and no one knows at this point. My client always understood it was going into a septic system.” When the federal investigation took place in 2012, Floyd Cochrane, the son of Elwood Cochrane, was in charge of the plant. Hous- ton said that Floyd Cochrane, when told to shut down the underground pipe system and find an alternate disposal method, decided on dumping the wastewater in a field adjacent to the river. Runoff from the dumped wastewater still ended up in the river. When federal inspectors discovered this during a follow-up inspection visit in November 2012, the company was told to stop using that disposal method and find a proper alternative. Floyd Cochrane has since died. Barry Co- chrane is now in charge of the plant and the company, since the November 2012 follow- up inspection visit, now has wastewater from the vats pumped into a tanker truck and taken away for disposal “in an appropriate manner” stated Houston. The wastewater now goes to the City of Ottawa for disposal in its waste treatment system. For Cochrane’s Dairy Ltd., the question now is what kind of financial penalty the company might face. Under the terms of the federal Fisheries Act, a first-time fine for an individual for illegal dumping might range from $15,000 to $ 1 million. For a small-revenue company, a first-time fine for illegal dumping can range from $75,000 to $4 million.
13 000 copies
Bertrand Castonguay , Président • President , bertrand@eap.on.ca Roger Duplantie , Directeur Général • General Manager , roger@eap.on.ca François Legault , Directeur • Director , francois.legault@eap.on.ca
François Bélair , Dir., Ventes et développement / Sales and Development , francois.belair@eap.on.ca Thomas Stevens , Dir., Infographie et prépresse / Layout and Prepress, thomas.stevens@eap.on.ca Publicité • Advertising : pubreflet.news@eap.on.ca
Nouvelles / News: inforeflet.news@eap.on.ca Classées • Classified : julie.potvin@eap.on.ca
1158, Notre-Dame, C.P. / P.O. Box, 1170, Embrun, ON K0A 1W0 Tel.: 613 443-2741 • Fax: 613 443-1865
Publié tous les jeudis par / Published every Thursday by: La Compagnie d’édition André Paquette Inc. Imprimé par • Printed by: Imprimerie Prescott et Russell
# convention : 0040012398 Toute reproduction du contenu est interdite à moins d’autorisation écrite au préalable. No content may be reproduced without prior written permission.
Représentation nationale / National representation Montréal : 514 866-3131 • Toronto : 416 362-4488
Nous invitons les lecteurs à nous faire parvenir leurs lettres qui ne doivent pas dépasser 300 mots. Nous nous réservons le droit de les modifier ou de refuser de les publier. L’expéditeur doit inclure son nom, prénom, adresse et numéro de téléphone. Readers are invited to send us their letters that must not exceed 300 words. We reserve the right to modify them or to refuse to publish them. The writer must include their names, address and telephone number.
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker