A Calgary man has been fined $7500 for tampering with wastewater samples at High River’s Cargill meat processing plant.
According to Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Management and provincial court documents Cargill employee Pushp Pal Singh was assigned in 2011 to conduct a study of the plant’s wastewater treatment methods and attempt to reduce the amount of phosphorous it discharges into Frank Lake. In February and March 2012 Singh tampered with three wastewater samples by adding alum effectively masking the amount of phosphorous in the samples. In April 2012 he confessed his actions to his employer and resigned.
After reporting Singh’s actions to the government Cargill was fined $80000. It was determined the actual amount of phosphorous in Cargill’s treated wastewater exceeded the 40 kilograms per day the company is allowed to dump in the lake. The government says it doesn’t believe the discharge caused any environmental damage.
Singh was charged with three counts of contravening the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act.
