Tembec will have to pay out $1 million for polluting the Ottawa River near its paper mill in Temiscaming.
Tembec will have to pay out $1 million for polluting the Ottawa River near its paper mill in Temiscaming.
The company reached a settlement with the Quebec government for a total of 36 charges, regarding the its exceeding of allowable effluent limits for the site between 2001 and 2003. The government originally charged the company with 155 counts of breaking the province’s environmental laws, the CBC reported.
The Temiscaming site houses two pulp mills, a paperboard mill and two chemical plants. Their combined effluent treatment streams are treated by a common system.
Although Tembec doesn’t negate the charges, vice president of communications and public affairs Pierre Brien pointed out that measures to correct the situation have been taken. “While we do not dispute that these exceedences occurred, it should be noted that the company invested more than $55 million throughout the 1990s in the infrastructure and continuous improvement of the Temiscaming site effluent treatment system,” he said.
To date, the fine is the largest any Quebec company has paid for the violation of an environmental law.
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