N.S. group seeks data on effluent leak from Northern Pulp pipeline

By The Canadian Press
Tues., Feb. 5, 2019

PICTOU, N.S. – A group opposing a plan to pump millions of litres of treated effluent through a pipeline into the Northumberland Strait is calling on the Nova Scotia government to answer questions about an Oct. 21 leak from the existing system operated by Northern Pulp.

Friends of the Northumberland Strait issued a news release Tuesday saying its membership is frustrated that after more than three months, the province has released no information about the size or cause of the leak last year near Pictou, N.S.

The Northern Pulp mill, as seen from Granton Abercrombie Branch Rd. in Pictou County, N.S. on Jan. 31, 2019. A group opposing a plan to pump millions of litres of treated effluent through a pipeline into the Northumberland Strait is calling on the province to answer questions about an Oct. 21 leak from the existing system.
The Northern Pulp mill, as seen from Granton Abercrombie Branch Rd. in Pictou County, N.S. on Jan. 31, 2019. A group opposing a plan to pump millions of litres of treated effluent through a pipeline into the Northumberland Strait is calling on the province to answer questions about an Oct. 21 leak from the existing system. (ZANE WOODFORD / STARMETRO HALIFAX)
Jill Graham-Scanlan, president of the group, said the public should be told the composition of the effluent that leaked and why the pipe break went initially undetected by the pulp and paper firm owned by Paper Excellence.

Provincial spokeswoman Rachel Boomer said the Environment Department is still investigating, and noted a 2014 inquiry into a prior leak required a year for completion.

“As a result, we won’t be able to provide information today on the size of the leak or what happened in this incident. We would be happy to provide this information once the investigation is complete,” she wrote in an email.

Boomer also said no compliance action has been taken at this point, since the investigation is still underway.

Consequences for violating an industrial approval range from warnings to summary offence tickets, ministerial orders or long-form prosecution.

Mill spokeswoman Kathy Cloutier said in an email the leak was “very small in size,” and added that it “did not make its way into Middle River.”

She said the effluent was “contained promptly and transported to the Boat Harbour facility where it was then treated and released into the Northumberland Strait via the existing system and route.”

Cloutier said the leak was at a fibreglass joint, the technology of the day in the 1960s, and the proposed new treatment system will have fusion welded joints that “are leak proof and as strong as the pipeline itself.”