April 28, 2015 – Surrey, British Columbia– Environment Canada
On April 24, 2015, All Seasons Mushrooms Inc. was ordered to pay a penalty of $90,000 in British Columbia Provincial Court after pleading guilty, on April 8, 2015, to the deposit of a deleterious substance into water frequented by fish, which is an offence under the Fisheries Act.
Environment Canada enforcement officers conducted an inspection of the organic mushroom farm in 2012 and identified a discharge of deleterious effluent into a nearby creek, in contravention of the Fisheries Act. An investigation was initiated. In 2013, another discharge point from the site to the creek was discovered and it was determined that the additional discharge was deleterious to fish.
$89,000 of the penalty will be directed to the Environmental Damages Fund (EDF) and $1,000 will be paid as a fine. The EDF was created in 1995 to provide a mechanism for directing funds received as a result of fines, court orders, and voluntary payments to projects that will benefit our natural environment.
As a result of this conviction, the company’s name will be added to the Environmental Offender’s Registry.
