Vale disagrees with Environment Canada conclusions

“We have reviewed the warrant documents filed with the Court by Environment Canada and disagree with the conclusions being drawn,” said Vale spokesperson Angie Robson, in an email to NorthernLife.ca.

“From Vale’s perspective, the issue at hand relates to October 2012 – which we have commented on in the past and investigated cooperatively with government regulators.”

In the warrant documents Environment Canada allegedly accuses Vale of “acutely lethal” seepage from its smelter waste piles into local waterways.

According to the warrant, the green-coloured water flowed from Vale's smelter waste heaps onto a Sudbury Catholic District School Board property and then into the city’s storm drains.

The warrant says those storm drains flow into Nolin’s Creek and then into Junction Creek.
Environment Canada representative Gordon Moore allegedly said in the warrant that tests on the green substance showed it killed all fish within 24 hours.

Samples from the creek showed nickel levels to be 68 times higher than regulated limits and copper levels 2.6 times higher, while tests on water from the school board property showed nickel levels to be 305 times the limit, the warrant says, according to a Canadian Press report on the warrant's contents.