Northern Pulp mill confirms effluent leak near Pictou Landing

Monday, October 22, 2018 2:00 pm

Northern Pulp mill confirms effluent leak near Pictou Landing | Canada, Northern Pulp, Paper Excellence, effluent,

CANADA (From news reports) --The Northern Pulp mill has responded to a leak from one of their effluent pipes, with the company saying they took "immediate action" to stop the leak.

The company says they were first notified of an effluent leak at 9:20 a.m. Sunday, a day after the mill began its annual maintenance shutdown on Saturday.

Kathy Cloutier, director of communications for Northern Pulp's parent company, Paper Excellence Canada, told Global News in an email that the leak is located downstream of the area where the 2014 leak occurred.

Cloutier says they notified First Nations and authorities of the incident as soon as it was confirmed.

The nearby Pictou Landing First Nation confirmed the news in a Facebook post on Sunday, saying that Bruce Chapman, Northern Pulp's general manager, told them it was a smaller leak than the one that occurred in 2014.

"Northern Pulp arranged for a third-party environmental consultant to be on site in the afternoon for assessment and development of a path forward plan," Cloutier wrote in an email.