The Mi'kmaq people of Pictou Landing have had enough of broken promises, and the stink of a toxic harbour that they have put up for over 40 years.

The province of Nova Scotia has promised to divert effluent from the pulp mill at Abercrombie Point and to clean up the Boat Harbour treatment lagoon, but it has yet to happen.

The Pictou Landing band made an agreement with Kimberley-Clark, who owned the mill, in 2001, agreeing to let the treatment plant operate there until 2030 if the pipeline diverted the effluent out to sea and if Boat Harbour was cleaned up.

By 2005, engineers told the province the cleanup of Boat Harbour couldn’t go ahead while the pulp mill was operating.

Nonetheless, in 2006, the Pictou Landing band signed an extension to the memorandum with Neenah Paper, the company that then owned the pulp mill, and a new cleanup date was set for 2008.

By 2008, Northern Pulp Nova Scotia Corp. owned the mill and the provincial licence it had for discharging waste into the ponds expired. Since then, the company’s licence has been granted on a month-to-month basis.

Brian Hebert, a negotiator for the Pictou Landing band, said, "The First Nation put the province and the mill on notice that as of July 1, they will be in a position to take legal action. The province gave the mill a licence to pour effluent into the harbour. The province could terminate that licence on a 30-day notice, but it’s unlikely the province would."

While Mr. Hebert said the band, province and the mill’s owner will continue to talk and negotiate, the community wants some guarantees, such as significant penalties if future deadlines aren’t met.

Source:
No fix yet for Boat Harbour - Pictou Landing native band threatens legal action against province, pulp mill over failure to clean up polluted lagoon (Chronicle Herald)