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A legal ruling made Wednesday at an Ontario court has paved the way for Canadian environmentalists to try to prosecute DTE Energy Co. of Detroit over allegations that mercury emissions from two coal fired power plants it operates in the U.S. are causing water pollution in Canada.
A provincial court in Sarnia Wednesday issued an order allowing a summons against DTE over a claim that about half the airborne mercury releases from the plants, located near Port Huron, Mich., are ending up in Canada, in violation of the federal Fisheries Act.
It is the second recent legal case dealing with a cross border pollution dispute between Canada and the U.S.
Vancouver-based Teck Cominco Ltd. is involved in a messy legal fight over pollutants it has released in British Columbia that have flowed into Washington State.
The Ontario case is similar, but involves an attempt to use the courts to stop a U.S. company from causing pollution in Canada.
In the DTE case, Scott Edwards, a Canadian citizen who is legal director for the Waterkeeper Alliance, a large, New York-based environmental organization, launched a private prosecution under the Fisheries Act last year against the utility. The action has been stalled because a justice of the peace in Ontario was unwilling to allow a summons to be issued against a U.S. company.
Now that Mr. Edwards can issue the summons, he intends to serve it on the company and have them fight his allegations in court. “Our goal here is to force them to reduce their mercury emissions,” Mr. Edwards said yesterday.
DTE spokesperson Lorie Kessler says the company, the largest electric utility in Michigan, hasn't been notified that it may be the subject of a Canadian legal dispute.
“To date, DTE Energy has not been served with any lawsuit or court action,” she said. The company views the claims against it as “baffling” because it is “in full compliance” with U.S. state and federal emission limits, Ms. Kessler said.
DTE operates the two plants in a complex near Port Huron, about a kilometre from the Canadian border. Coal contains mercury, a dangerous heavy metal linked to neurological damage, that is released into the air when the fuel is burned.
These emissions eventually are deposited on land through rain, and then end up in waterways, where the heavy metal accumulates in fish. Mercury contamination is the leading cause of advisories the Ontario government issues recommending people to avoid or reduce consumption of sports fish.
