Northern Pulp sentencing postponed on Fisheries Act charge

Northern Pulp will have to wait until March 24 tofind out its sentence forreleasingliquid 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 itwas postponed until March.

• Northern Pulp charged with releasing effluent into fish habitat
• Northern Pulp mill shut down due to effluent leak
• Northern Pulp ordered to contain, clean up effluent spill

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

On June 10, 2014, a leak in an effluent pipe forced a shutdown of the Pictou County mill. Thepipe 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 wascharged under Environment Canada's Fisheries Act.