Description and Prescription of Effluent Discharges from Pulp and Paper in Canada

Act: Fisheries Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. F-14
Regulation: Pulp and Paper Effluent Regulations, SOR/92-269, as amended

To Whom Does This Apply?

All pulp and paper mills and all off-site treatment facilities receiving a quantity of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) from a mill, equal to or greater than 20% of the total BOD treated by the facility, or a minimum of 5 000 kg of BOD from a single mill.

Summary

One of the purposes of the Fisheries Act is to protect fish and marine organisms from the discharge of harmful substances.

The Pulp and Paper Effluent Regulations prescribe the deleterious substances, the allowable deposit of each substance, and set out the requirements for monitoring and reporting effluent quality, as well as environmental effects monitoring for the receiving environment.

A "deleterious substance" includes:

• any substance that, if added to any water, would degrade or alter or form part of a process of degradation or alteration of the quality of that water so that it is rendered or is likely to be rendered deleterious to fish or fish habitat or to the use by man of fish that frequent that water, or
• any water that contains a substance in such quantity or concentration, or that has been so treated, processed or changed, by heat or other means, from a natural state that it would, if added to any other water, degrade or alter or form part of a process of degradation or alteration of the quality of that water so that it is rendered or is likely to be rendered deleterious to fish or fish habitat or to the use by man or fish that frequent that water.

DISCLAIMER
Information contained in this section is of a general nature only and is not intended to constitute advice for any specific fact situation. For particular questions, the users are invited to contact their lawyer. For additional information, see contact(s) listed below.

New Brunswick Contact(s):
Mr. William Moores
Environment Canada
16th Floor
Queen Square
45 Alderney Drive
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia  B2Y 2N6
Telephone: (902) 426-2004
Fax: (902) 490-0705
E-mail: William.Moores@ec.gc.ca
Web site: http://www.ec.gc.ca/envhome.html

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National Contact(s):
Environmental Protection Publications Centre
Environment Canada
Telephone: 613-953-5921 or 613-953-5750
Fax: 819-953-7253
Web site: http://www.ec.gc.ca/envhome.html

Ms. Linda Maddison
Forest Products Division
Environment Canada
Place Vincent Massey
351 Saint-Joseph Boulevard
Gatineau, Quebec  K1A 0H3
Telephone: (819) 953-5046
Fax: (819) 994-7762
E-mail: Linda.Maddison@ec.gc.ca
Web site: http://www.ec.gc.ca/envhome.html