Harrietsfield resident’s private prosecution over polluted drinking water going ahead

A Nova Scotia judge has given the green light for a resident’s private prosecution against two numbered companies accused of contaminating drinking water in the Harrietsfield area.

On Wednesday, resident Marlene Brown and two Nova Scotia Environment employees provided testimony to questions from Brown’s lawyer Jamie Simpson at a pre-investigation hearing.

Brown is also represented by East Coast Environmental Law.

READ MORE: Harrietsfield resident to file ‘private prosecution’ against companies for polluting drinking water

She is alleging the companies who operated the former RDM Recycling demolition site violated the province’s Environment Act by “releasing substances that contaminated water in the area” and failing to comply with two ministerial cleanup orders.

Papers were filed last month under the environment act and are now proceeding against Roy Brown, and numbered companies 3012334 Nova Scotia Limited and 3076525 Nova Scotia Limited. A search of the latter company in the Registry of Joint Stocks lists an address associated with Dexter Construction in Bedford.

“It’s a small but important step,” Simpson said Friday in an email to Global News. “This pre-investigation hearing was a chance to demonstrate that our evidence is strong enough to warrant proceeding to a trial, and the judge agreed.”

READ MORE: Harrietsfield residents still waiting for safe drinking water

Simpson also told Global News last month that a failure to monitor residents’ wells for nearly two years and a two-year limitation period on evidence which can be used in the case forced the group to act when it did.

Global News reached out to the lawyer for 3076525 Nova Scotia Limited, but did not hear back by publication.

The first appearance is scheduled for June 13.

—With files from Marieke Walsh, Global News