Effluent pipe leak renews opposition to Northern Pulp plan for waste pipeline to Northumberland Strait

A coalitionof First Nations officials and fishermen say they are standing firm in their opposition toa paper mill'splan to pump wastewater into the Gulf of Saint Lawrenceafter a leak was discovered Sunday in one of the mill's underground effluent pipes.

A Pictou, N.S., resident discovered the leak theday before Northern Pulp presented a new proposal to representatives fromPictouLanding First Nationand fishermen's associations from NS, PEI and NBforapipelineto pumptreated waste waterfrom the mill into the NorthumberlandStraitfour kilometres offshore.

"I think it's an awful idea," said fisherman and Pictou Landing First Nation councillor Derek Francis.

"The pipe broke on the Pictou Landing side and they didn't even know about it until a citizen found it. How in the hell are they going to keep track of 10 kilometres of pipe?"

Francis said even if the leak hadn't happened, he'd still oppose Northern Pulp's latest plan since it still results in dumping effluentinto the ocean.

"Theplace ...where they're planning on having the outfall of the effluent is right on our fishing ground. It's lobster fishing ground, herring fishing ground, mackerel and rock crab. Once they destroy it, we have nothing."

The pipeline would run overland from the millalong the causeway betweenPictouLanding and the town ofPictou, then gounderground near Caribou before reaching thestrait.

Boats from all three Maritime provinces joined a July rally on the water against Northern Pulp's plan.

In 2015, the Nova Scotia governmentpromised to close and clean upthe mill's current,open aireffluent treatment process at Boat Harbour by January2020 via the Boat Harbour Act. The 140-hectare lagoonis said to be one of Nova Scotia's most chemically contaminated areas caused by decades of pulp millsediment buildup.

If Northern Pulp doesn't find a way to deal withits waste by 2020,the mill could shut down.

Francis said he doesn't like the idea of locals losing their jobs if the mill is forced to shut down, but that he doesn't know of another option to safely deal with the wastewater.He said it shouldn't be up to the communities to figure that out.

"[Northern Pulp will]be the ones responsible if the mill closes down," he said.

"I see other mills running[that are]cleaner than our mill. It's up to them to come up with another plan to reuse the water, to do something other than dumping effluent into our waters."

Next steps unclear

A news release issued Monday by the coalition stated that Northern Pulp had asked local fishermen to act on an advisory committee for the new plan.

"No amount of community advice will change the fact this proposal will harm the strait," saidBobby Jenkins, president of the P.E.I. Fishermen's Association,in the statement.

"Our working group has been advocating since the start for a win-win solution but there seems to be no interest by Northern Pulp to look at other options."

In an email statement to CBCNews, Kathy Cloutier, director of corporate communications forPaper Excellence Canada, said the effluent flow was stopped soon after the leak was discovered and the pipe has since been repaired.

"The cause has yet to be determined as has the volume," the statement read.

"We are waiting on consultants' recommendations as thus far all guidance has been steered toward remediation and getting the effluent that did leak to the treatment plant. Northern Pulp arranged for a third-party environmental consultant to be on site in the afternoon for assessment and development of a path forward plan."

Nova Scotia's Department of Environment confirmed that an investigation into the leak and subsequent impactis underway.