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The Department of the Environment has just sent offense reports to Ottawa and its subcontractors for sending hundreds of trucks loaded with heavily contaminated materials and soil to an unauthorized location. Under the Act, Quebec can initiate criminal proceedings. The federal government faces up to $ 3 million in fines, said Minister David Heurtel's press secretary. "The ministry does not rule out any action," says Émilie Simard. As with any project, the Quebec government intends to enforce its environmental protection laws. " The material in question came from the site of the former Fonderie St-Germain, a heavily contaminated land that the federal government inherited after the company's bankruptcy in 2007. Public Services and procurement Canada (SPAC) awarded $ 9.8 million contract to GPEC International Ltd to clean the site in Saint-Edmond-de-Grantham. The Ottawa company, however, sent 9000 tons of dioxin and furan contaminated material 75 km away to a site that did not have the authority to remove these particularly hazardous organic contaminants. Incomplete information: After analysis of these soils, the company that received them, Northex Environnement inc. of Contrecœur, returned the loads to their original site located in an agricultural zone, as reported by our investigation office in June. The federal government now recognizes that its subcontractors sent thousands of tonnes of contaminated soil to the Montérégie region without reporting all the toxic substances they contained. "The materials transported in Northex contained dioxins and furans in varying proportions, but also contained other types of contaminants, such as metals, which had higher concentrations," explains Véronique Gauthier, spokesman for SPAC, owner of the land. The transport manifestations specified only the type of contaminants with the highest concentration. " Our investigative office obtained the manifests for transporting the trucks that transported the contaminated soil. These documents must explain the contents of the cargo, but they did not mention dioxins and furans. Québec's environmental rules are clear. They require "to provide the concentrations of all the contaminants in the soil" transported, explains in an email Emilie Simard. "Information thus accompanies the soil to the place where it will be managed. " In addition to the federal government and GPEC, the environmental engineering firm Englobe also received a notice of non-compliance for "shipping contaminated soil to an unauthorized location," according to Ms. Simard. Englobe is mandated to oversee decontamination work conducted by GPEC in the federal field. The company therefore had to ensure the accuracy of the transport manifests accompanying the contaminated soil to the treatment site. "We are currently reviewing the file," says Manon Leblond, director of communications for the firm. Noncompliance: The company receiving the soils, Northex, was also notified of non-compliance in June for storing soils that it was unable to decontaminate. According to documents in the possession of our Investigative Office, however, the company had specified that it did not wish to receive soil contaminated with dioxins and furans. The director of GPEC International, Noel Perera, has not recalled our investigation office despite our many messages left to the company since June.