HALIFAX —
Nova Scotia’s environment minister is withholding approval of a pulp mill’s controversial proposal to pump 85 million litres of treated effluent daily into the Northumberland Strait.
Gordon Wilson says the province doesn’t have enough information to determine if Northern Pulp’s project will harm the environment, and the company can’t move forward until it files a full environmental assessment report.
In an announcement today, the minister said the new information is required to properly assess whether the plan for a new effluent treatment plant and 15-kilometre pipeline near Pictou, N.S. will harm human health, fish, air or water resources.
Northern Pulp’s plan has faced stiff opposition from the Pictou Landing First Nation, environmental groups and fishermen from across the Maritimes.
It remains unclear what will happen to the mill because it is facing a legislated deadline to stop dumping its effluent into lagoons at Boat Harbour near Pictou Landing by Jan. 31.
The company has said it will close the mill, eliminating 300 jobs, unless the provincial government grants an extension to that deadline.
The mill supports thousands of additional jobs in the province’s forestry sector.
Wilson says Northern Pulp has up to two years to submit the environmental assessment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 17, 2019.
