Pictou Landing First Nation held a community meeting on February 16, 2016 to prepare an impact statement.

During the meeting the community discussed the effects of Northern Pulp’s 2014 pipeline spill on the area.

On June 10, 2014, Northern Pulp’s pipeline ruptured, releasing 47 million litres of untreated effluent into the surrounding area, including the East River and Pictou Harbour.

Effluent is classified by the government, under the Pulp and Paper Effluent Regulations, as mill waste water. It can include all water by-products from processing.

Northern Pulp’s pipeline carried 90 million litres of untreated effluent from the company’s mill at Abercrombie Point to a treatment facility at Boat Harbour, in Pictou Landing.

 Northern Pulp’s pipeline

Source: Google Maps

Pipeline spill

Timeline: Northern Pulp’s pipeline spill

Source: Timeline JS

Pictou Landing First Nation, Chief Andrea Paul, says, “this [pipeline spill] was not a victimless offence.”

Pictou Landing First Nation

In the impact statement to the court, Chief Paul said the spill triggered “anger and fear” based on decades of “environmental degradation of our territory.”

During the community meeting, Chief Paul says people felt “helpless,” like they had “let the environment down.

She says it began with the construction of the pipeline in 1967.

“The pipeline was routed across lands over which our First Nation has asserted a compelling claim for Aboriginal title,” says Chief Paul. “This land was never the subject of a Crown grant but somehow became the subject of private deeds exchanged between settlers in the area.”

In response to the spill the Pictou Landing First Nation organized a blockade, which led to a two week closure of the mill.

Chief Paul says, the brief closure brought the community a sense of “relief.”

Investigation

An investigation into the leak found that the land-based portion of the 3.6 kilometre-length pipeline had not been internally inspected since 2008, “despite there having been several leaks that had required repair or replacement of sections of the pipeline in previous years.”

According to court documents, there was a 14 inch “oval hole” in the pipeline where the “discharge occurred.” It also states that there were visible  “cracks, leaks and extensive erosion” at the “rupture site.”

Representatives from Environment and Climate Change Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Natural Resources Canada, and the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources were all unavailable to comment on government regulations around pipeline inspection and maintenance.

Clean up

Between June 11 to 21, 2014 the company brought in pumper trucks to clean up the effluent. The effort removed 2.2 million litres of the 47 million litres of the spilled effluent.

 

Cloutier says, “the entire line has now been inspected as a preventative measure to minimize the possibility of such a leak occurring again.”

She says in June 2015, the mill was shut down for “proactive line repairs as part of ongoing preventative measures.”

Ruling

In May, a judge in Nova Scotia fined Northern Pulp $225,000 in damages for the leak. The sentence instructed the fine to be distributed equally to the Mi’Kmaw Conservation Group, Pictou County Rivers Association, Pictou Landing First Nation.

New Industry Standards

Northern Pulp mill has reduced the daily amount of waste water transferred from the mill to a treatment facility by 20 per cent, based on new industry standards.

The company’s communications director, Kathy Cloutier says, “currently the pipeline carries closer to 70 million litres of effluent a day.”

She says the reduction in waste is the result of “water reduction efforts and projects that are part of Northern Pulp’s long term operating plan.”