Nova Scotia native band to continue to block access to mill’s waste pipe: chief

Northern Pulb Mill at Abercrombie Point, Nova Scotia. Photo courtesy of NorthernPulp.com

ABERCROMBIE POINT, N.S. — A native chief in Nova Scotia says aboriginal protesters will continue to block access to a paper mill’s broken wastewater pipe until the province and the mill commit to closing an effluent treatment plant that borders her community.

Chief Andrea Paul of the Pictou Landing First Nation says she wants the premier’s office and Northern Pulp, which runs the mill, to devise a plan to close the treatment plant in Boat Harbour, N.S., and undertake a site cleanup.

Paul says until that happens, protesters will continue preventing heavy equipment from using an access road to fix the underground pipe, which they say is near a Mi’kmaq burial site.

The blockade went up on Tuesday after the band council learned the pipe was leaking wastewater into wetlands and the nearby East River.

A spokesman for Northern Pulp says the mill was closed Tuesday to stop the flow of wastewater, and it’s expected that senior officials with the company will meet with Paul for talks about the blockade.

The provincial government has said more information is needed on what kinds of effluent have settled in the harbour before it provides a timeline on a remediation plan.