Pollution
Humain
Environnement
Economique

On a Sunday, 1,800 litres of white spirit with less than 1% aromatics stemming from a chemical product distillery polluted a brook and the Saint-Laurent River over a 1-km stretch. A neighbour noticed the pollution.

A distillery employee in charge of periodic monitoring at the site closed the valves responsible for the discharge. White spirit tank no. 54 had been equipped with a purge valve and a level reader that could be isolated from the tank by a valve. According to the operator, these valves had been opened out of malicious intent, thereby causing flow into the retention basin, which had been equipped with a sump and, at the low point, a drainage valve that was closed but leaking. The solvents flowed towards the site’s containment basin, whose sectional valve was permanently left open (according to the operator, for the purpose of avoiding basin filling in the event of precipitation), and then towards the natural environment. The next day, the Classified Facilities Inspectorate visited the site and noted that the drainage valve on retention basin tank 54 was defective and moreover proposed that the Prefect issue the operator an official notification to respect requirements in the distillery’s initial approvals. The operator filled the retention basin drainage valves and gave orders to close the sectional valve on the containment basin during the weekends.