HON. ELIZABETH WITMER
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WITMER REGARDING FINE ANALYSIS LABS

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Ministry of the Environment, Investigations & Enforcement Branch - 2002
Thank you for your recent letter to the Honourable Elizabeth Witmer regarding Fine Analysis Laboratories Limited (FAL) of Hamilton, and your concern related to the wastes accepted at landfill sites in the Hamilton area. The Minister has asked me to respond on her behalf.
Staff of the ministry's Laboratory Services Branch have been monitoring the activities of FAL for the past few years to ensure public health and safety. Our activities have included: conducting independent analyses of sites that have used FAL for their analytical work (including Plastimet and Taro Landfill), and advising municipalities on the testing that FAL is accredited, or not accredited, to perform.
In September 2001, the ministry became sufficiently concerned with the practices of FAL that it filed an official complaint with the Canadian Association of Environmental Analytical Laboratories (CAEAL) and the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), citing claims of falsifying accreditation claims under Ontario Regulation 459/00 and suspect data quality issues. This resulted in a 30-day suspension of FAL's Scope of Accreditation by the SCC in October 2001. Ministry officials also approached the Hamilton Police Service in early 2001 to request the initiation of a criminal investigation with respect to potential fraudulent testing practices at FAL. Staff from this ministry's Laboratory Services Branch and Investigations and Enforcement Branch have been assisting police officials in this ongoing investigation.
As you are now aware, in February 2002, the Hamilton Police Service laid charges against three individuals associated with FAL for conspiracy to utter forged documents.
As a result of the ongoing police investigation of FAL activities, in the interest of public health and safety, the ministry will no longer accept any FAL analytical results. This decision will remain in effect until all uncertainties have been addressed with regard to the quality of analytical results provided by FAL.
The ministry has also notified municipalities, waterworks operators, laboratory managers, and other stakeholders that it no longer accepts any FAL analytical results. This includes results submitted be either FAL itself, by laboratories using FAL as a sub-contractor, or any organization regulated by the ministry using FAL.
Our government is committed to protecting public safety and environmental health across Ontario. A strong enforcement effort is the foundation of our provincial program, providing a deterrent effect which motivates compliance, and provides fairness in the marketplace to ensure non-complying facilities do not gain an unfair competitive advantage. There will be no let-up in our efforts to get tough on polluters.
The ministry has also provided an additional avenue for the people of Ontario to contact the ministry directly with their environmental concerns. A Pollution Hotline
(1-866-663-8477 or 1-866-MOE- TIPS) has been set up as a toll-free, 24 hour public hotline for reporting suspected acts of pollution. The hotline makes it easy for people to protect the environment by bringing problems to the ministry's attention. In addition to locating polluters from callers' tips, the hotline is used to gather information on new and emerging environmental issues. Hotline callers may choose to remain anonymous. A corresponding e-mail address moe.tios@ene.aov.on.ca has also been set up.
Thank you for informing the ministry of your interest in these important issues.
Sincerely,
Wilf Ng
Director, Investigations and Enforcement Branch

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