Judge imposes $35K fine on B.C. sewage company, laments provincial government's 'inertia' on permitting

A member of the Conservation Officer Service inspects wastewater. In 2017, the COS launched an extensive investigation into Joseph Kitzke and his company Kalia Resources Corp., which have since been fined $35,000 for dumping sewage in a lagoon near Fort St. John. (Facebook/ COS)

A B.C. man has been fined $35,000 for dumping sewage in a lagoon on his property near Fort St. John, but the judge who imposed the fine says the crime was partly a result of "bureaucratic intransigence" on the part of the provincial government.

Joseph Kitzke and his company Kalia Resources Corp. were sentenced to the $35,000 fine – plus a 15-per-cent victim surcharge and a five-year probation order – in Fort St. John provincial court on July 31.

The sentence stemmed from Kitzke pleading guilty to the charge of "unlawfully introducing or causing or allowing to be introduced into the environment waste produced by a prescribed activity or operation," contrary to the provincial Environmental Management Act.

Provincial court Judge Darin T. Reeves summarized the details of the case in his sentencing decision, explaining that Kitzke's mother purchased the property on which he operated his business specifically because it was the site of a septic lagoon system that served the Charlie Lake Elementary School.

The lagoon was permitted to accept 22.7 cubic metres of domestic waste per day, and was used by the elementary school until the regional municipality switched to a central sewage system.

"Some time after purchasing and using the property for the disposal of domestic wastewater, Mr. Kitzke was informed that upon transfer of the property the pre-existing permit was missing and no longer valid, and thus he was no longer permitted to dump third-party domestic human waste into the lagoon system," Reeves wrote in his decision.

Kitzke sought a new permit from the Ministry of Health, which ended up referring the matter to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, which denied his application for a commercial permit for "undisclosed reasons" in 2016, according to Reeves.

"Following this, Mr. Kitzke elected to continue using the lagoon system for the purpose of supporting his commercial enterprise of pumping, transporting and disposing of residential human waste within the Charlie Lake and Fort St. John area, knowing he was in breach of the regulations," the judge wrote.

In pleading guilty, Kitzke admitted to dumping 1.29 million litres – or 129 cubic metres – of human waste from 1,305 clients into the lagoon. By doing so, he avoided paying approximately $118,000 in waste discharge fees that he would have been subject to had he disposed of the waste legally.

Reeves noted that there was no evidence that Kitzke ever exceeded the lagoon system's daily limit, nor any evidence that he introduced waste into the environment "unsafely."

The judge found this to be a mitigating factor in his sentencing decision, writing that the crime was "closer to an administrative offence" than one of polluting the environment.

He also noted that the ministries' failure to address the permitting situation reduced Kitzke's culpability for "what otherwise would be an egregious pattern of flagrant disregard for provincial regulations."

"Land was sold to Mr. Kitzke’s mother with a pre-existing facility capable of doing exactly what he wished to do and did," Reeves wrote. "Through administrative error the prior permit was lost, and by bureaucratic intransigence and inertia neither ministry appeared capable of reissuing a new permit, or providing a reason for not permitting this activity."

Crown prosecutors sought a fine of $80,000 plus the victim surcharge, while Kitzke's lawyer sought a fine of just $5,000, citing "collateral issues including administrative penalties resulting from other business activities, pending civil forfeiture actions by the province regarding the sewage-vacuum truck seized, local public notoriety that resulted from these proceedings and the attendant loss of business income."

The parties agreed that a five-year probation order banning Kitzke from operating the sewage lagoon without a permit would be appropriate.

Reeves imposed such an order, as well as the $35,000 fine and 15-per-cent surcharge, which works out to a total of $40,250. The fines will be payable over 10 years.

In a Facebook post, the BC Conservation Officer Service celebrated the court's decision, saying it resulted from an investigation the service launched in 2017.

The COS said it has also responded to three incidents of illegal burning of commercial pallets on the Kalia Resource Corp. property, in 2016, 2018 and 2021.

"To date, the fines, surcharges, and penalties issued to Joseph Kitzke and Kalia Resources Corp. resulting from these investigations combine for a total penalty of $115,825," the service said in its post.