Ben Berendsen says that he always knew that the truth would come out one day. But in his case, it took almost 14 years.
In 1994, the dairy farmer sued the province after he discovered the ground water on a farm he bought in Teviotdale, Ont., north of Kitchener, had been contaminated by buried concrete and asphalt, harming the health of his cattle and his family.
This week, a Supreme Court judge awarded the family more than $1.7 million in damages.
"I am relieved it is finally over," said Berendsen, 65, in an interview yesterday from his farm near Walkerton., where he relocated in 1994.
"It was very difficult, because you are fighting all alone. No one believes you, but I knew there was enough evidence to keep going."
When Berendsen bought the Teviotdale acreage in 1981, he was unaware that surface waste, including tonnes of asphalt from nearby highway reconstruction, had been buried near a creek on the property in the 1960s.
