Federal minister signs off on province’s Boat Harbour cleanup plan


The New Scotland government has an OTTAWA green light for its $ 425 million plan to remedy the boat port, but comes with a long list of conditions that include continuing to look for another place to store the long -term contaminated mud.

The Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, issued his decision last Friday after an environmental assessment by the Canada Impact Evaluation Agency, a work that began almost six years ago for cleaning the water body near Pictou Landing Fick Nation that for decades received effluents from the North Pulp Mill.

In his decision, Guilbeault wrote that he determined the project for the construction of New Scotland “is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects.”

According to the terms of the approval, an installation of containment of hazardous waste at the existing site would expand vertically, increasing its capacity of 220,000 cubic meters to almost 1.1 million cubic meters.

However, before that work can continue, Build New Scotland officials, a provincial agency previously known as New Scotland lands, must satisfy a variety of conditions that include, among others ::

  • Communications planning.

  • Consultation of the first nations.

  • Habitat protection of fish and fish.

  • Protection of migratory birds.

  • Preservation of health and the socioeconomic conditions of indigenous peoples.

  • Retention of an independent environmental monitor and indigenous monitors “to observe, register and inform about the implementation of the conditions” throughout the process.

An advisory committee must also be established to examine the alternative locations for the eliminated mud from the port of the ship.

Considering alternative storage sites

The Committee is a wink to continuous concerns and the opposition of neighboring Pictou Landing First Nation, whose boss and advice do not want the mud that is eliminated from the old tide estuary remains in the area.

The Order of Guilbeault says that the construction of Nueva Scotia will invite Pictou Landing members to act as a co-leader in the advisory body and provide any resource required, since they consider alternative sites.

“If an alternative location cannot be found within a year, the Advisory Committee can continue its work for 10 years or until both parties agree to end, whatever happens first,” he wrote. The committee could also be restored at a later date.

The minister said that the construction of New Scotland must “design and build the containment cell in such a way that the waste can be eliminated and that the containment cell can be dismantled” if another viable site is identified and approved.

The challenges such as cost and traffic involved walking mud in another place, along with potential environmental risks, all contributed to the Build Build plan, New Scotland, finally presented.

Conditions for Review of the Province

Pictou Landing First Nation officials did not respond to a request for comments on Monday.

A spokesman for the construction of Nueva Scotia said in a statement that the agency would take the time to review the conditions to determine what it means for the implementation of the project.

“We can talk to the decision once we have completed our review,” said Beverley Ware in the statement.

Ware said that eight years of studies and evaluation have entered the project and that the current timeline for the remediation and construction phase is four to seven years once the contract is granted.

“That time frame depends on the presentation of the successful proponent and the approach of that proponent to sequence project activities and general programming. The estimate of the current budget is $ 425 million.”

The company considers another option

The cleaning project follows the closure of the old northern pulp factory in Abercrombie Point in 2020.

The company ceased to occur when it failed to obtain the approval of the province for a new effluent treatment center before a legislated closing date so that the effluent has been treated in Boat Harbor.

The work of the construction of Nueva Scotia intends to restore the port of the ship to the tides estuary that was before the pulp factory was first established in the area in the 1960s.

The Northern Pulp parent company is currently exploring the potential to establish a new operation in the Liverpool area.



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