By no means is Domtar in the clear now that the province has committed $85-million to clean-up the English-Wabigoon River System.
Environment Minister Glen Murray says a scientific team found evidence during a previous inspection that there was a strong probability that there was mercury potentially coming from the Dryden Mill site or the river adjacent from the mill property.
Murray says they ordered the company to investigate, and if there was evidence of new or old contamination, to come up with an remediation action plan.
He says the government also discovered that Domtar had two of its own wells that weren’t part of the Ministry monitoring regime and they ordered officials to search those wells to determine if there were any leaks.
Murray says Domtar hasn’t been very cooperative and they’ve had difficulties with the company before.
He stresses if Domtar does not do the work that has been asked of them, the Ministry has unfettered access to the site to do enforcement and send their own research team in to do the assessments.
Murray adds all they are looking for is cooperation and the company can ask for money from the Ministry, noting they haven’t been holding a “gun to their head”.
He says at no time did the government ask Domtar to pay for the work.
Murray says they have already worked with scientists to conduct a comprehensive ground and aerial inspection and they found no signs of mercury.
He is also asking the company to allow Indigenous leaders to freely visit the site to do their own studies.
To hear the entire statement from Environment Minister Glen Murray, visit the audio link below.
