A settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit for damages caused by a massive 2013 fuel spill in the West Kootenay’s Slocan Valley.
An agreement signed by the lawsuit parties was filed in B.C. Supreme Court, with four defendants paying more than $4.5 million into a fund that could be divided among some 2,700 affected residents.
“You have to understand this was litigated for 11 years,” said David Rosenberg, class counsel for the lawsuit’s representative plaintiffs, Robert Kirk and James Ross.
“They’re very pleased with the settlement. They’ve been following the litigation all along, and they know how hard-fought it was.”
The agreement must still be approved by a judge in B.C. Supreme Court on January 15, 2025.
A settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing.
Fuel spill forced mass evacuation
In July 2013, a tanker truck carrying 35,000 litres of fuel for helicopters fighting a forest fire overturned into Lemon Creek, about 10 kilometres south of Slocan, B.C.
Some 2,500 people were told to evacuate their homes over potential health and safety concerns, especially around hazardous fumes from the jet fuel.
Officials have lifted the evacuation order after a tanker truck tipped spilled jet fuel into Lemon Creek.
A widespread “do not drink” water order was imposed. Some residents reported fish were killed.
Rosenberg says the damages were well documented: “The river was contaminated … and people had personal injuries like rashes and burning eyes and claimed their drinking water was poisoned.”
The province spent more than $4 million to clean up Lemon Creek and the downstream watershed.
Court ruled spill created ‘environmental disaster’
In 2016, the federal government filed eight criminal charges against the truck driver, fuel company, and provincial government under the Fisheries Act and the Environmental Management Act. All were named class action defendants.
The court heard the truck driver, Danny Lasante, had turned onto a wrong, closed forestry road and failed to navigate a narrow turn when his truck slid into the creek.
“Had Mr. Lasante taken even a little more care, the spill might not have occurred,” provincial court Judge Lisa Mrozinski wrote in her judgment, ruling Lasante’s actions had led to an “environmental disaster,” even if it was unintentional.
He was later convicted on one count under the Environmental Management Act and handed a $20,000 fine.
Calgary-based Executive Flight Centre Fuel Services Ltd, the trucking company that employed Lasante, pleaded guilty to one count of a deleterious deposit into waters frequented by fish under the Fisheries Act. and was fined $175,000.
The Province of B.C. was acquitted of all charges related to the spill.
Class action agreement sets precedent.
Two separate class action lawsuits were filed in response to the disaster, one by Lemon Creek resident Robert Kirk for environmental damage and a second by James Ross for personal injury. The filings were later combined into a single class action lawsuit.
Rosenberg says agreements of this nature are rare and set a precedent for personal injury claims.
MLA Katrine Conroy on how Lemon Creek spill affected families
“The history of environmental class actions in Canada … have not been very successful in compensating those victims of environmental disasters. As far as I know, there has never been a case in Canada where bodily injury damages in an environmental class action have been awarded. So this will be first and precedent-setting.”
A total of 2,776 property owners within the evacuation zone and anyone who carried on a business within that zone were cited as class action members.
The amount of money disbursed will depend on the damage claimed by individuals.
After the agreement is approved by the court, there is a six-month timeline to set up a process for notification and registration before any compensation is handed out.