Cascades Canada Inc. says 2007 an isolated incident and it won’t happen again

A company that bills itself as an environmental leader has been fined more than $200,000 for polluting the Trent River.

But a spokesman for Cascades Canada Inc. said the 2007 spill at its Trenton Norampac plant was an isolated case that won’t be repeated.

“It’s not something we’ve experienced before at any of our other plants,” said Hubert Bolduc told The Intelligencer Friday evening by telephone. “We’re going to try to make sure it doesn’t happen anymore.”

Cascades pleaded guilty Oct. 27 in Belleville provincial court to discharging a material into the Trent River that impaired water quality. The company also pleaded guilty to failing to avoid harming the water and restore the environment. A related charge was withdrawn.

Justice Deanne Chapelle fined the company $175,000 plus a victim surcharge of 25 per cent, or $43,750.

Kate Jordan, a spokeswoman for Ontario’s environment ministry, said the charges stemmed from a January 2007 provincial inspection of the Norampac pulp and paper plant. Norampac is owned fully by Cascades.

The plant produces black “liquor,” a residue of the process of making paper from virgin fibre.

“It’s a waste material that contains numerous carcinogens,” Jordan said Friday evening.

It was stored in the company’s lagoon but spilled over a rubber liner and pooled nearby.

“It was an undetermined amount, because it was spilling,” said Jordan.

“The liquor was flowing to a catch basin and a ditch that eventually discharged into the Trent River,” the ministry said in a press release. “The ministry advised facility staff that the lagoon level had to be brought down and the ditch had to be pumped out and remediated immediately to stop the discharge.

“Another inspection two days later revealed that there had been no attempt made to reduce the lagoon level or stem the flows in the offsite ditch leading to the Trent River,” said the release.

Cascades is based in Kingsey Falls, Que., southeast of Trois-Rivieres. It promotes itself as an environmentally-friendly company, making products from recycled material and using other sustainable practices.

Company spokesman Hubert Bolduc said in a telephone interview it was an accidental spill and there is now little the company can do but apologize.

“We’re sorry and we’re going to pay,” Bolduc said.

“We thought we had contained the leak … and it was not the case,” he said. “The ministry did its job.”

Bolduc said 80 per cent of Cascades’ products come from recycled material, meaning it doesn’t produce as much liquor as other companies. But he added that does not excuse the spill.