Court reduces fines for Oxford County hog farmer involved in manure spills

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

by JIM ALGIE

Heavy fines and a jail term imposed in early 2012 on an Oxford County hog farmer were reduced on appeal of his conviction in separate 2007, manure spill incidents, an Ontario Environment Ministry statement says.

Eric Van Boekel, general manager of Van Boekel Hog Farms Inc., appealed $345,000 in fines and a jail sentence of 30 days following a trial in Woodstock over violations of Ontario environmental protection law. Following the appeal, Van Boekel pleaded guilty to violating Ontario Water Resources Act charges that he “failed to take reasonable care” to prevent manure discharges into the Thames River and Sweets Creek in the 2007 incidents. Total fines in the case amounted to $150,000, the ministry statement says.

Van Boekel could not be reached for comment. Soon after the original trial, Van Boekel said farmers were getting “witch hunted through the countryside for minimal amounts of spillage” by Environment Ministry officials. In a 2012 Better Farming story, reporter Susan Mann quoted Van Boekel to say the justice of the peace at his original trial “never addressed our due diligence defense.”

Evidence in the case indicates manure entered the Thames River after a water pipe burst, April 29, 2007, in a large pig barn in the Braemar Township area of East Zorra-Tavistock, the ministry statement says. Water flooded the barn, overflowed to adjacent fields and the nearby river, the ministry says.

A farm worker repaired the pipe but failed to follow the flow of liquid. An Environment Ministry investigator later found pig manure had entered the river.

In a separate incident, May 3, 2007, investigators responding to a spill complaint in Norwich Township found liquid manure being spread on fields had entered Sweets Creek. Manure entered the creek through what the ministry statement describes as “a hidden tile drain under the creek bed without a catch basin.”

Company officials immediately brought a back hoe to dig up the tile and stop the discharge, the ministry statement says.

As a result of the appeal and subsequent guilty pleas, Van Boekel received a fine of $20,000. Two companies in which Van Boekel is a director each received $50,000 fines. A victim fine surcharge of $30,000 brings the total owing to $150,000, the statement says.

Commenting on the case, Ontario Environment Minister Jim Bradley is quoted to say breaking environmental protection laws “can result in serious penalties and is an offense the ministry takes very seriously.” BF