St. Clair River
Submission ID: SEM-07-004
Party concerned: Canada
Date filed: July 25, 2007
Submission Status: Closed
Latest Update: August 31, 2007
The thirty-day term expired without the Secretariat receiving a submission that conformed to Article 14(1). Under guideline 6.2, the process was therefore terminated.
Summary of the matter addressed in the submission:
The Submitters allege that Canada is failing to effectively enforce its environmental law by not preventing chemical and sewage spills to the St. Clair River in Sarnia, Ontario, and failing to notify downstream areas in the St. Clair-Detroit River corridor about spill incidents.
In SEM-07-004 (St. Clair River), the Submitters assert that Canada is failing to effectively enforce Section 3 of the federal International Boundary Waters Treaty Act and Article IV of the 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty by failing to contain water pollution from Sarnia, Ontario, which, they allege, is causing injury to the health and property of the United States and its citizens. The Submitters cite examples of spills that occurred at refineries and sewage treatment plants between 2003 and 2007. They allege that there has been little response from Canada to a 2006 International Joint Commission report recommending spill prevention measures for the St. Clair-Detroit River Corridor. The Submitters assert that despite repeated requests from the Macomb County (Michigan) Water Quality Board, Canada has offered little response about matching US efforts to install state-of-the-art, real-time water quality monitoring equipment aimed at improving the quality of drinking water coming from the St. Clair River Basin.
Submitter(s):
St. Clair Channelkeeper, Environmental Law Society of Wayne State University Law School, Brendan Frey, Noah Hall, Doug Martz, Andrea Montbriand and Oday Salim
Submission Timeline
The Secretariat received a submission and began a preliminary analysis of it under the guidelines.
Acknowledgement - Communication to Submitter(s) authored by Secretariat on 25/07/2007
Submission - Submission authored by Submitter(s) on 15/07/2007
The Secretariat notified the submitter(s) that the submission did not meet all of the Article 14(1) criteria and the submitter(s) had 30 days to provide the Secretariat with a revised submission that conforms with Article 14(1).
Determination - Secretariat Determination under Article 14 (1) authored by Secretariat on 01/08/2007
The thirty-day term expired without the Secretariat receiving a submission that conformed to Article 14(1). Under guideline 6.2, the process was therefore terminated.