Many pro-industry supporters bemoan what they consider to be pesky regulations that serve nothing more than to merely hamper business.
But these rules are in place to protect people as well as the environment.
Sundre council recently heard what could only be described as a disconcerting report regarding private companies' use — in this case misuse or perhaps even outright abuse — of the town's wastewater treatment plant.
Jim Hall, operations manager, said during the Nov. 7 meeting that there have over the years been improper dumps that caused problems for the facility and even placed the municipality in potential legal hot water for temporarily being in contravention of regulations.
Most recently, an as-of-yet unidentified truck driver dangerously drove a rig along a berm not designed for heavy loads and proceeded to dump raw sewage directly into the lagoon's third cell, which is largely treated effluent that is all but ready to be released back into the Red Deer River.
“I can't wrap my head around it, but somebody decided it would be a good idea to drive around all the berms and get to cell three — which is basically clean, fish-loving water — and dump in there,” said Hall.
“I can't believe they actually drove on there, which scared us even more, because if a truck slides in there I can't even begin to think how we're going to get it out.”
Staff immediately took steps to prevent similar incidents, put up fencing to lock off the cell, and then proceeded to rebuild the original station for discharge.
“Now all the trucks have to pump into there,” said Hall.
Mayor Terry Leslie later inquired whether the responsible party had been indentified.
The matter remained under investigation, said Hall, adding there are about a dozen companies that have access to the wastewater treatment facility. Since the site cannot be physically guarded full-time, the operations manager said efforts are underway to take measures to do some in-house monitoring by installing some cameras. Additionally, security codes for the third cell were changed, restricting access, he said.
Granted, every effort should be made to reduce if not outright eliminate redundancies in regulations — such as clashes between provincial and federal rules that seem to serve little purpose other than to create more red tape.
But by and large, these rules are not haphazardly conjured up on a random whim just for fun. They are likely more often than not the result of careless activity that forced the hands of policy-makers who no doubt hope to be re-elected.
So the next time corporate lobbyists drone on about how terrible regulations are for business, just remember they're actually more concerned about their profits than they are about the environment as well as possibly even yourself.
Meanwhile, the protective and proactive measures, which were enacted by the Town of Sundre's operations staff at the sewage lagoon in response to the neglectful actions of some companies, are nothing less than commendable.
