PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Montreal, September 15, 2020 - The many arrests made by Fondation Rivières to the Minister of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change (MELCC) Benoit Charette since the start of the spill remain unanswered. According to the Environmental Quality Act, the Minister is the chief trustee of environmental protection in Quebec. In this context, and considering that we did not even take the trouble to install a floating barrier or a turbidity curtain in order to limit the impacts of the spill on the water quality of the Saint-Maurice River and the Saint-Laurent, the Fondation Rivières is forced to put the minister and his ministry on notice in order to force them to act, under section 5 of the Water Act.
Remember that on August 31, 2020, a mechanical breakdown at the main pumping station forced the City of Trois-Rivières to discharge municipal wastewater into the Saint-Maurice River and the Saint-Laurent River. This accidental spill previously planned over a period of 48 hours is still in progress to this day, for a minimum of 1.3 billion liters of wastewater discharged in 19 days, without any measure to retain solid contaminants. implementation, such as a floating barrier or turbidity curtain.
The Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change (MELCC) and the Minister of the Environment, Mr. Benoit Charette, having failed to act diligently under section 5 of the Environmental Protection Act water which provides that every person has the duty, under the conditions defined by law, to prevent or, failing that, to limit the damage that they are likely to cause to water resources and, in doing so, to take part in their protection. Today, Fondation Rivières served a formal notice requesting the immediate implementation of the basic mitigation measures mentioned above.
“This is the first time that we have observed a spill of this kind without a floating barrier being installed,” underlined the president of Fondation Rivières, who indicates that the installation of such a barrier costs around 10,000 $ per week. “Trois-Rivières wastewater is not cleaner than elsewhere. »
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Source :
Geneviève Tardy
Communications Manager
vs. 514 424-3556
communications@fondationrivieres.org
Photo: John White
