Quebec company fined $1.35M for river pollution in Gatineau

Quebec Company Fined for Chemical Discharge

A Quebec company has been fined $1.35 million for discharging a harmful substance into the Lièvre River in 2019. The company, Superior General Partner Inc., owned and operated the Erco Mondial chemical manufacturing plant.

Superior General Partner Inc. pleaded guilty in Quebec court to 12 counts of discharging sodium chlorite into the water. This was in violation of the Fisheries Act. Environment Canada announced the guilty plea and the fines in a statement on Thursday.

The investigation found that sodium chlorite, used mainly as a textile-bleaching agent and disinfectant, was spilled into the river 12 times between June 27 and July 19, 2019. Environment Canada stated that the chemical is considered “deleterious” to fish under the act.

Environment Canada noted that Superior General Partner Inc. took five days to notify them of the leak. The company claimed that the discharges were due to equipment failure.

Jean-François Roux, the plant’s technical director at the time, also pleaded guilty to failing to inform federal authorities of the spills. Roux was fined $15,000.

Laura Reinsborough, CEO of the non-profit Ottawa Riverkeeper, praised the federal government for completing the investigation and issuing the fine. She stated, “It’s a significant size of a fine as well. That’s very promising. It’s reassuring.”

The Lièvre River flows into the Ottawa River and is home to several fish species, including smallmouth bass, brook trout, walleye, and muskellunge. In the summer of 2019, thousands of dead fish were found in both rivers.

Environment Canada did not directly link the sodium chlorite spill to the fish deaths. At that time, Quebec’s environment ministry was investigating a hydroelectric plant on the river.

CBC has reached out to Environment Canada for more information. Reinsborough expressed hope that either the federal or Quebec government could provide more details about the events that led to the fish kill.

“We have questions for both the Quebec authorities and the federal government in their different conclusions,” she said.

Environment Canada stated that Superior General Partner Inc. will be added to the environmental offenders registry. This registry lists corporations that broke certain federal environmental laws. Money from the fine will go to the government’s environmental damages fund.