The Canadian mining company Teck Metals has once again been caught up in the justice system.
Already sentenced in 2016 to a fine of 3 million dollars for having polluted the Columbia River, this time it will have to pay a fine of 2.2 million Canadian dollars (1.3 million euros) for having discharged approximately 2.5 million liters of wastewater in this same river in 2019. The decision was made on Tuesday, the federal government announced.
This subsidiary of the Teck Resources group, one of the leading companies in the sector, had pleaded guilty.
She will have to pay most of her fine to the Government of Canada's Environmental Damages Fund, which aims to support natural environment restoration and wildlife conservation projects.
Teck Metals will also be listed on the Environmental Offenders Registry, which identifies companies that have committed violations of certain federal environmental laws.
"Many operational errors" identified
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.
It had "been caused by the leak of an acidic solution from the company's fertilizing operations in Warfield, British Columbia", 600 km east of Vancouver, explained the Ministry of the Environment 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, 2,000 km long, crosses the province of British Columbia in Canada, but also the American states of Washington and Oregon (northwest).
Many species live there, such as rainbow trout or white sturgeon.
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