Pulp Mill Fined $525,000 for Environmental Protection Act Violations

Convicted – AV Terrace Bay

Court Location – Thunder Bay

Description of Offences –

• The convictions are for:
  • Failing to control the quality of discharged effluent to ensure that acute toxicity tests resulted in no more than a 50% mortality rate for the test organisms
  • Failing to comply with an industry standard by discharging Total Reduced Sulphur compounds with concentrations greater than the prescribed limits more than two times in a six-month period

Date of Offences – Various dates between May 1, 2023, and May 28, 2023

Date of Convictions – March 14, 2025

Penalties Imposed –

• AV Terrace Bay was convicted of two violations under the Environmental Protection Act, fined $525,000 plus a victim fine surcharge of $131,250, and given 12 months to pay.

Background –

• AV Terrace Bay Inc. owns and operates a pulp mill on Mill Road in the Township of Terrace Bay. The mill converts wood into pulp using a kraft pulping process.

• Due to financial constraints and market conditions, the mill has been in a warm idle state and has not been producing product or revenue since at least January 2024.

Acute Toxicity Test Failure

• The mill generates industrial effluent that undergoes primary and secondary treatment prior to discharging to Lake Superior via Blackbird Creek. The establishment and operation of the mill’s industrial sewage works is authorized by an Environmental Compliance Approval (ECA) that was issued by the ministry in October 2018.

• The ECA requires AV Terrace Bay to operate the sewage works such that no more than 50% of Rainbow Trout test organisms die in the required monthly acute toxicity tests.
• On May 1, 2023, 100% of the Rainbow Trout died during an acute lethality test performed on a grab sample of the mill’s final effluent.

• Following the failed acute toxicity test, AV Terrace Bay reported the incident to the ministry and provided written confirmation of the test result within seven days, as required by the ECA.

• On the same day that AV Terrace Bay discovered the failed acute toxicity test, the company obtained an additional effluent sample and tested it once a week for four weeks with no further reported failures. As a result, the failed toxicity test on May 1, 2023, appears to have been an isolated incident.

Total Reduced Sulphur Exceedances

• AV Terrace Bay is required to ensure that air emissions from the mill comply with the ministry’s technical standards for pulp and paper facilities. Technical standards prohibit the discharge of Total Reduced Sulphur (TRS) into the air where the discharge results in a concentration exceeding 27 parts per billion (ppb) over a 10-minute average period more than two times in any six-month period.

• AV Terrace Bay breached this prohibition on four occasions in May 2023. The company immediately reported each TRS exceedance to the ministry as required, implemented an immediate investigation to determine the cause of the TRS exceedances and submitted an abatement plan to the ministry.

• The ministry’s Environmental Investigations and Enforcement Branch investigated and laid charges which resulted in the convictions.