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by Mike Caswell

Copper Mountain Mining Corp. has won an appeal decision in its legal battle over the disposal of PCB-contaminated oil from its Copper Mountain mine. The Court of Appeal for British Columbia has partly overturned a lower court ruling in which the company and two of its contractors were ordered to pay $655,337 to a disposal company after they did not tell the disposal company about the level of PCBs in oil from an old electrical transformer. The disposal company later pumped 1,400 litres of oil that came from the transformer into a large storage tank, in turn contaminating 125,000 litres of oil and water, which had to be treated.

In overturning the judgment, the appeal court found that the disposal company, Enviro West Inc., could be found at least partly liable because it did not take steps to ensure the oil was safe, such as asking for a PCB test. Although Enviro West did not know that the oil contained a high level of PCBs, it was aware that there were some PCBs. In such a situation, it could take "reasonable care in its own interests," the appeal court found. The appeal court did not disturb the original judge's finding that Copper Mountain and its contractors were liable, but did find that the original judge did not properly consider the negligence of Enviro West. The case will now return to the Supreme Court for a new ruling on damages.

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