(Montreal) The Canadian mining company Teck Metals was sentenced Tuesday by a provincial court to a fine of 2.2 million dollars for having dumped chemicals in a river, announced the federal government.
This subsidiary of the Teck Resources group, one of the leading companies in the sector, was accused of having discharged approximately 2.5 million liters of wastewater into the Columbia River in 2019. She had pleaded guilty.
The Provincial Court of British Columbia ordered Teck Metals to pay the bulk of its fine to the Government of Canada’s Environmental Damages Fund, which is intended to support projects to restore the natural environment and wildlife conservation.
Teck Metals will also be listed on the Environmental Offenders Registry, which identifies companies that have committed violations of certain federal environmental laws.
At the end of February 2019, employees of this Vancouver-based company reported to the Ministry of the Environment a spill of low pH wastewater related to the company’s operations in British Columbia.
The spill was “caused by the leak of an acidic solution from the company’s fertilizing operations in Warfield, British Columbia,” 600 km east of Vancouver, the environment ministry said. and climate change, in a press release.
An investigation had determined that it “resulted from numerous operational errors”.
Much of the sewage discharged had “a pH below 4”, “harmful or harmful to fish” in the Columbia River.
The Columbia River, 2000 km long, crosses the province of British Columbia in Canada, but also the American states of Washington and Oregon. Many species live there, such as rainbow trout or white sturgeon.
In 2016, this same court had already condemned Teck Metals to pay a fine of 3 million dollars for having polluted the Columbia River between November 2013 and February 2015.