Call and answer: spill response firm providing fast solution.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: SUDBURY

Entrepreneur Gerry Dignard will be the first to tell you looks can be deceiving.

His company, Canadian Shield Consultants Agency Inc., is located in the small town of St. Charles, located an hour southeast of Sudbury, but it's having a big impact on environmental stewardship in the mining industry

The firm provides turnkey, on-site wastewater and water treatment systems for clients in mining, forestry, tourism and residential. It engineers, designs, manufactures, installs and maintains the self-contained systems, which are used primarily in remote areas inaccessible by road.

"We're equipped to do all the fancy stuff that everybody else does, even though we're in a small community" said Dignard, the firm's founder and CEO. "For us, our locale is not that important for the reason that our work is away"

Working across the country, but primarily in Ontario, Canadian Shield's client sheet is a Who's Who of the mining industry. Cliffs Environmental, Lake Shore Gold, Gold Canyon Resources, KGHM, Metalex Ventures, Detour Gold and Goldcorp are all customers.

High-strength waste management, or managing the wastewater from mining operations, has experienced the most growth over the last five years, and the company maintains a presence in the Ring of Fire.

Canadian Shield is now venturing into new territory with the launch of its Environmental First Response division, which will oversee and prepare cleanup plans for spills of non-environmentally friendly materials that pose a threat to the environment.

"It's a natural evolution from our firm," Dignard said. "We see and understand that there needs to be a closed loop. There are engineering firms that look after environmental spills, there are aviation companies that take these engineers out to the site--we will have it all. We get the one phone call, and we're out."

Staff will do initial, minor containment, followed by a quick assessment and transfer its findings to the command centre in St. Charles. A report will be prepared for the client, stakeholders and environmental regulators, and a cleanup plan will be devised. Canadian Shield will then supervise the cleanup, test the soil or water impacted by the spill and provide a final report.

Potential clients include transportation companies, pipeline companies, mining companies, petroleum companies and others that are transporting toxic substances. No company can ensure it will never have a spill, Dignard said, but having a contingency plan in place...