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“They assured us that this would not happen, but exactly what we have been concerned about did just happen,” Marathon Mayor Rick Dumas said Monday following a tour of the site. About 12,000 litres of diluted pulping liquors leaked on the weekend at the plant property as they were being transferred by pipe to a nearby spill basin. The Ministry of Environment said the leak – a small portion of the three million litres in total to be transferred to the basin – has been cleaned up. “We don‘t want anyone to panic over this,” said the ministry‘s regional spokeswoman Lisa Brygidyr. Former mill co-owner Tembec, which is conducting the transfer of the chemicals, emphasized the spill was contained quickly and was not necessarily caused by cold weather. “The mill has sat idle for some time (since March), so this may be a consequence of fluid not flowing in a pipe for some time,” said Tembec corporate affairs vice-president John Valley. Dumas said it was a “fluke” that the leak occurred in an area of the mill where contractors conducting the transfer could notice it. There was always a concern, he said, that the cold weather would cause a leak as the chemicals were being pumped to the basin on the other side of a large hill overlooking the mill property. Following the weekend leak, Brygidyr said, the remaining liquors will be transferred to the basin by truck rather than risk another leak. In an arrangement reached last week between the ministry and Tembec at Ontario‘s Environmental Review Tribunal, Tembec agreed to transfer the chemicals into the spill basin rather than leave them at the plant to freeze. The basin, with a capacity of 30 million litres, currently contains about 18 million litres. Spent pulping chemicals are sent there before they end up at an industrial secondary treatment plant located about two kilometres west of town. The municipality wanted Tembec to either heat the plant to prevent a chemical leak, or remove the chemicals before the mercury dropped below 0 C. Brygidyr said the ministry ordered Tembec in the summer to carry out either option, but the company appealed the move to the ERT which delayed getting the matter resolved. Valley said given the general slump in the pulp sector, it was difficult finding another mill that would want the chemicals. At last week‘s ERT hearing, the company put forward evidence from pulp industry experts that its plan to transfer the chemicals into the basin was environmentally sound. Top of Page |
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September 2, 2010, 8:22 am |