Mercer Peace River Pulp Ltd. - conviction information for 2024-04-09
| Corporation name: | Mercer Peace River Pulp Ltd. |
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| Address: | 1000 Cathedral Place, 925 West Georgia Street |
| City: | Vancouver |
| Province/territory: | British Columbia |
| Postal code: | V6C 3L2 |
| Country: | Canada |
| Sector or industry: | 321 - Wood product manufacturing |
| Location of offense: | #1 Pulp Mill Site Road, Peace River, Alberta |
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| Case summary: |
Mercer Peace River Pulp Ltd. (Mercer) owns and operates a pulp mill located north of the Town of Peace River, Alberta.
The pulp mill operates a wastewater treatment system that treats effluent before it is released to the Peace River. The wastewater treatment system has a spill pond designed to capture and store effluent resulting from spills or unusual operating conditions. Once in the spill pond, effluent is gradually reintroduced back into the treatment system at a controlled rate to minimize its overall negative effect. Leading up to the incident, the spill pond was 60–70% full of sludge, meaning that it had only 30–40% of its capacity to capture spills or other waste materials.
On April 11, 2021, Mercer began an annual mill maintenance shutdown to allow for equipment to be cleaned and repaired. The shutdown generated waste materials from process vessels and wastewater from cleaning operations which were directed into the spill pond. Mercer had not maintained sufficient capacity in the spill pond to capture the additional effluent. As a result, the spill pond did not function as designed and during the shutdown the spill pond overflowed three times, depositing its contents directly into the aerated stabilization basin.
The incident led to approximately 30 million litres of effluent that was acutely lethal to fish entering the Peace River on April 14, 2021.
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| Charges: |
COUNT 1:
Mercer Peace River Pulp Ltd., on or around April 14, 2021, at or near the town of Peace River, in the Province of Alberta, did deposit or permit the deposit of a deleterious substance of any type in water frequented by fish or in any place under any conditions where the deleterious substance or any other deleterious substance that results from the deposit of the deleterious substance may enter any such water, in violation of subsection 36(3) of the Fisheries
Act, r.s.c., 1985, c. f-14, s. 36, 2012, c. 19, s. 143, as amended, and thereby did commit an offence under subsection 40(2) of said act.
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| Enforcement notification: | Mercer Peace River Pulp Ltd. in Alberta fined $1 million for unlawful deposit of effluent into the Peace River |
| Result: | Guilty Plea |
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| Date of conviction: | 2024-04-09 |
| Court level: | Provincial and Territorial Court |
| Nature of offense(s): |
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| Additional details about the nature of the offense: |
| Act | Regulations | Section(s) |
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| Pollution Prevention provisions (subsection 36(3)) of the Fisheries Act | Pulp and Paper Effluent Regulations | 6(5) |
| Date of sentencing: |
2024-11-10 |
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| Location of sentencing: | Peace River |
| Sentence(s): |
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| Amount of fine(s): | $1,000,000 |
| Sentencing details: |
On September 4, 2024, before the Alberta Court of Justice of Peace River, Alberta, Mercer Peace River Pulp Ltd. pleaded guilty to one count of a violation of subsection 36(3) of the Fisheries Act, which is an offence under subsection 40(2) of said Act.
On October 11, 2024, before the Alberta Court of Justice of Peace River, Alberta, Mercer Peace River Pulp Ltd. was ordered to pay a total of $1,000,000 in fines to the Government of Canada’s Environmental Damages Fund.
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