Nova Scotia

Northern Pulp sentencing postponed on Fisheries Act charge

Pictou County mill to be sentenced March 24 for releasing liquid pulp and paper waste into a waterway in June 2014.

Pictou County mill pleaded guilty last month to releasing effluent into water inhabited by fish in 2014

Northern Pulp will be sentenced next month on a charge under the Fisheries Act. (Jeorge Sadi/CBC)

Northern Pulp will have to wait until March 24 to find out its sentence for releasing liquid pulp and paper waste into a waterway in June 2014. 

The company was supposed have a sentencing hearing in provincial court in Pictou on Wednesday, but it was postponed until March. 

In January, Northern Pulp pleaded guilty to releasing effluent into water inhabited by fish. 

On June 10, 2014, a leak in an effluent pipe forced a shutdown of the Pictou County mill. The pipe carries 90-million litres of pulp waste each day from the mill site at Abercrombie Point, under the East River, to a treatment facility at Pictou Landing.

At the time it was estimated that four to five million litres of effluent pooled in the area, according to then environment minister Randy Delorey.  

Northern Pulp was charged under Environment Canada's Fisheries Act.