Catalyst Paper Corporation has been fined $200,000 after pleading guilty to federal pollution charges stemming from a September 2012 incident at its Powell River mill.
The corporation was found to have violated the Fisheries Act when it allowed 3.6 million litres of untreated mill effluent to flow into the Malaspina Strait during two power outages.
Catalyst also plead guilty to failing to collect water samples on September 14, 2012.
“We couldn’t plan for [the outages]. We didn’t know they were going to happen and when they did, we did our best,” said Catalyst spokesperson Eduarda Hodgins. “The incidents are regrettable and unfortunate because Catalyst takes its commitment to the environment very seriously.”
Hodgins said the incidents are not common for the company, which prides itself on its strong environmental and sustainability track record.
“We took immediate steps to address the issues and made investments in backup power generation to make sure that this does not happen again,” she said.
As a result of this court decision, the company is being added to the government’s Environmental Offenders Registry, a list of corporations that have been convicted of breaking environmental laws enforced by Environment Canada and Parks Canada.
According to Hodgins, key details of the case were missing from the government’s media release, issued Friday, December 19.
“It’s important to keep the issue in context. The discharges contained cooling water and pulverized wood fibre and Environment Canada agreed there was not any evidence of harm to the marine environment,” said Hodgins.
She added that the second spill was not caused by a broken check valve, like the government press release states, but also by a power failure.
Of the $200,000 the company was ordered to pay in damages, $185,000 will go to a federal government environmental damages fund and the remaining $15,000 into general revenues.
