An Alberta pulp mill was fined $1 million and added to the Environmental Offenders Registry after dumping wastewater into the Peace River that is considered ”acutely lethal” to fish.
Mercer Peace River Pulp Ltd. (Mercer Peace River) pleaded guilty to violating the federal Fisheries Act in early September. On October 11, the Alberta Court of Justice ordered the company to pay the hefty fine.
Clean-up Job Gone Wrong
The penalty resulted from an Environment and Climate Change Canada investigation, which found that Mercer released more than 30 million litres of toxic waste into the river while the mill was shut for routine maintenance in 2021.
Wastewater from the cleaning process was directed to a spill pond, which stores effluent before it is treated and released.
However, the storage pond lacked the capacity to handle the additional wastewater, so the toxic waste spilled into the nearby river.
More Monitoring Needed
Lorne Fitch, a retired Alberta government fish and wildlife biologist, called it a “huge discharge.”
“Even though the Peace River is a relatively large river, my suspicion is that this would be acutely toxic to fish, and it would cause a fish kill downstream for a significant distance,” Fitch told CBC, adding that environmental disasters like this could be avoided with tighter government monitoring and control.
The Peace River is an important river for fish. The Mercer mill’s toxic plume flowed into waters inhabited by Arctic grayling, bull trout, burbot, lingcod, northern pike, rainbow trout and walleye.
Registered Offender
“As a result of this conviction, the company’s name will be added to the Environmental Offenders Registry. The Registry contains information on convictions of corporations registered for offences committed under certain federal environmental laws,” says an official government statement.
Mercer Peace River has been in operation next to the Peace River since 1990, 26 kilometres upstream from the community of the same name.
The mill is owned by Mercer International Inc., headquartered in Vancouver, but operates in British Columbia, Germany, and Australia.
Mercer’s corporate website under Sustainability claims, “The control of our effluent discharge is essential for maintaining the aquatic health of ecosystems, ensuring safe, secure drinking water supplies, and reliable water supplies for a sustainable economy.”
