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Golden Hill guilty of environmental damage

Golden Hill Ventures was found guilty on two charges related to storing waste and spilling petroleum at sites across the Yukon yesterday. The construction company was guilty of not maintaining a berm and letting oil spill into the ground.

Golden Hill Ventures was found guilty on two charges related to storing waste and spilling petroleum at sites across the Yukon yesterday.

The construction company was guilty of not maintaining a berm and letting oil spill into the ground.

Golden Hill, on top of having spilled the oil, was trying to clean it up without a permit. For this, the company was charged.

However, five other charges related to a report filed by an environmental officer in the summer of 2009 were dropped during the court hearing.

The charges were let go because Golden Hill has done some remediation at the sites, said Ian Yap, a Crown lawyer for the Justice Department.

“They had made some efforts to address those charges,” he said.

He wasn’t sure to what degree the sites have been cleaned up.

Yukon Environment’s contaminated sites branch could not be contacted before press time.

Several of the dropped charges were due to permitting.

Another dropped charge had to do with storing “special waste” without a permit.

That waste has since moved, said Yap.

The Crown and Golden Hill put forward a joint sentencing submission.

They requested $5,000 in fines be issued, to which the judge obliged.

This is Golden Hill’s first environmental offence.

“We’re not going to throw the book at someone for a first offence,” said Yap.