Fort William First Nation raises concerns following effluent spill
By Rick Garrick
FORT WILLIAM FIRST NATION — Fort William First Nation Chief Michele Solomon has raised concerns about a late August effluent spill from the Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper mill in the Kaministiquia River that flows past her community.
“I was really concerned and surprised to learn that one of our young members, a child, had actually been swimming in the river a few days before or a week before this incident came to light,” Chief Solomon says. “So that just goes to show that the public needs to be aware of these things, the public needs to be informed of the state of that water; otherwise, how do people keep themselves safe? I don’t know if people eat fish from that river directly in that area or not, but if this is not being brought forward to the public, then the public can’t keep themselves safe.”
Chief Solomon says she initially heard about the spill when a posting by a Thunder Bay citizen about seeing discoloured water and dead fish in the Kaministiquia River was shared with her.
“I reached out to him to get more information, so I spoke to him the next morning, and he basically shared with me what he found and that he had tried to reach out to other people to bring attention to this,” Chief Solomon says.
She says she was significantly concerned that nobody had taken the time to send her an e-mail or to call her about the spill.
“I actually double-checked my e-mails,” Chief Solomon says. “I did my due diligence and made sure that I hadn’t received an e-mail and just overlooked it because I wanted to make sure I was not getting upset with people when, in fact, there was an e-mail sitting in my inbox, but there was not.”
Chief Solomon says they have since received incident reports through the Nokiiwin Tribal Council, which had received the reports from Environment and Climate Change Canada. Nokiiwin serves Fort William and five other First Nations.
“These reports go to Indigenous Services Canada, so they’ve gone from Indigenous Services Canada to Nokiiwin, and then they’re coming to us after the fact,” Chief Solomon says. “There’s been no report received directly from Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper, DFO (Fisheries and Oceans Canada), MECP (Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks), MNR (Ministry of Natural Resources). Nokiiwin is a tribal council that we belong to, so they provide resources and supports to us in some of our work, but we should still be notified directly.”
Chief Solomon says Fort William has been doing their own testing of the water near the spill site on the Kaministiquia River.
“Our staff here is following up on those reports and doing our own testing,” she says. “I believe that there will be more information available to the public as this evolves.”
Chief Solomon says people from her community have reached out to ask questions about the spill.
“We did put out a notice to community to take precautions and not to use the water,” she says. “And people are upset that this was not made public right away, because when things aren’t made public, that’s when things can go wrong, they can go further wrong. It’s bad enough that it happened, but then when people are not notified, then you leave people at risk.”
A spokesperson with MECP states in an e-mail response that their ministry’s Spills Action Centre received a report on Aug. 23 from the Ministry of Natural Resources about a discoloured plume and strong odour near the Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper mill’s effluent discharge location.
“The ministry contacted the mill to obtain further information about events leading up to the discharge/plume and requested sampling information from the mill,” states Gary Wheeler, a spokesperson with MECP. “The ministry also collected samples that we are analyzing. To date, all water samples collected by the ministry have passed toxicity testing. General chemistry is still be reviewed/assessed.”
Wheeler adds that the mill reported effluent exceedances on Aug. 26, based on samples taken on Aug. 20 and 25.
“As a result, the ministry issued a Notice of Violation to Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper Inc. that requires the mill to immediately cease discharging until compliance can be achieved for the effluent, and to undertake an analysis of the incident and identify measures needed to prevent this from happening again,” Wheeler states. “Samples collected by the company indicate the mill effluent is now in compliance, and as of Sept. 2, the company has initiated a restart of the facility. The ministry is closely monitoring the restart and the overall situation.”
A Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper spokesperson states in an e-mail response that, following a scheduled outage at the mill, Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper proactively identified elevated solids and residual levels.
“Taking these indications seriously and upholding our commitment to the highest environmental standards, we initiated close monitoring and then decided to suspend production completely, pending further testing,” states Bill MacPherson, CEO at Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper. “We have been in continuous communication with the Ministry since identifying the issue and have taken all steps necessary to fully comply with the Notice of Violation. We value our vital role within the community and are dedicated to operating sustainably.”