PICTOU, N.S. — Waste water from Northern Pulp will continue to get dumped in Boat Harbour for three months after Jan. 31.
The pipe that carries raw effluent is part of the Boat Harbour treatment facility and is owned by the province.
At a news conference in Halifax on Tuesday, Premier Stephen McNeil told reporters that the pipe will be fully disconnected by the end of April.
“This will allow us to flush that pipe, contain anything in it to the Boat Harbour containment cell and then disconnect it,” said McNeil.
Even though the mill will no longer be discharging effluent after January, the stuff coming out the other end of the pipe into Boat Harbour is considered effluent under federal pulp and paper regulations.
McNeil told reporters that the province wasn’t able to take control of the pipe until Northern Pulp’s use of it officially ended on the legislated closure date.
“Here’s where we are," he said. "We couldn’t do anything with that pipe until Jan. 31.”
The continued use of Boat Harbour as a receiving area for Northern Pulp's waste is a short-term necessity, according to the province.
"In essence, it's containing what could potentially cause an environmental issue for us," said McNeil.
To avoid that, McNeil says the mill will be winterized, a process that involves heating the Abercrombie Point facility through the mill’s power boiler to prevent the pipes from freezing.
Water discharged from that process will move through the pipe and into Boat Harbour, along with everything left over in the pipe after Jan. 31.
Whatever is discharged into Boat Harbour post-Jan. 31 will then be dredged and sealed away in an on-site containment cell as part of the current Boat Harbour remediation plan.
Up until McNeil's announcement, Pictou Landing First Nation residents had expected that Jan. 31 would be the cut-off.
“Of course, the community is disappointed,” Chief Andrea Paul said in a news release. “We were expecting a complete shutdown of the Boat Harbour treatment facility. Northern Pulp could have started draining the pipes weeks ago in order to complete the work before Jan. 31 and avoid the need to heat the mill after that.”
Attempts to speak with representatives from Northern Pulp have been unsuccessful.
“I’m very frustrated,” said Paul. “The community is planning a ceremony on Jan. 31, 2020 to mark the start of the remediation of Boat Harbour and we are not sure what is happening. I don’t know what to tell them.”
RELATED:
