Toxic sewage discharged at Chalk River nuclear lab

Canadian Nuclear Labora‐ tories (CNL) discharged tox‐ ic sewage at the Chalk Riv‐ er site along the Ottawa River during peak fish spawning season earlier this year, CBC Indigenous has learned.

Environment Canada con‐ firms its enforcement officers in late April issued CNL a compliance direction, a tool used to correct violations of Fisheries Act regulations.

It said Chalk River's sani‐ tary sewage plant had an "acute lethality failure," meaning testing found the sewage effluent, or treated wastewater discharge, was toxic to fish.

Effluent is considered acutely lethal when, at 100 per cent concentration, or undiluted, it kills more than half the rainbow trout sub‐ jected to it during a 96-hour period, regulations say.

Neither CNL nor Environ‐ ment Canada said what pol‐ lutants were in the effluent, how much toxic wastewater was discharged or where, sparking fears it may have landed in the Ottawa River.

Environment Canada said it "takes pollution incidents and threats to the environ‐ ment seriously." CNL said it's "confident that the non-com‐ pliant discharge from the sewage treatment facility does not pose a threat to the environment or the public."

But the lack of clarity around the incident is spark‐ ing questions and concerns.

Lance Haymond, chief of Kebaowek First Nation in

Quebec upstream from the site, said he's shocked to learn the details.

"I'm upset. I'm not happy to find out that the opera‐ tions at Chalk River again are posing harm to the Ottawa River," he said.

"That it's happening dur‐ ing one of the most impor‐ tant periods in the fishing season, which is the annual spring spawn, causes us great concern."

Earlier this year, the coun‐ try's nuclear regulator ap‐ proved CNL's plan to build a radioactive waste landfill at the Chalk River site. The dis‐ posal facility would contain about 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of low-level nuclear waste.

Kebaowek and local groups have launched court challenges against the pro‐ ject's approval.

Haymond considers the problems at the existing sewage plant a bad omen, since the organization will need to manage wastewater contaminated with radionu‐ clides like tritium if the land‐ fill is built.

What's even more trou‐ bling, the Algonquin leader added, is the perception of secrecy. CNL learned of the problem in February but did‐ n't inform the public of "noncompliance in sewage efflu‐ ent" until late March.

Environment Canada also didn't notify the public until contacted with questions prompted by an anonymous tip.

"That's really upsetting,

and that's probably more concerning," said Haymond.

Facility now passing tox‐ icity tests: CNL

CNL is under contract to manage federally owned nu‐ clear sites and liabilities, in‐ cluding the sprawling but ag‐ ing Chalk River research hub about 180 kilometres north‐ west of Ottawa.

The organization said it detected the problem in Feb‐ ruary following a disruption at the sanitary sewage treat‐ ment facility, which serves 3,000 employees and con‐ tractors.

Environment Canada said its enforcement officers were alerted to the issue on March 7 and began to confirm "it was indeed a violation" of the wastewater regulations.

CNL didn't notify the pub‐ lic until nearly three weeks later, when it reported the non-compliance in a March 27 community information bulletin. CNL didn't say what requirements were breached but promised it was working to bring the effluent back in‐ to compliance.

Haymond received the communiqué directly but said he shrugged it off as vague and seemingly under control.

Coincidentally, Haymond had a Kebaowek member in the area, roughly 16 kilome‐ tres downstream from the nuclear facility, gathering in‐ formation on fish spawning for the First Nation.

Mary-Lou Chevrier com‐ piled her observations in an April 13 report, before she knew of the sewage issue. Chevrier reported encounter‐ ing a distinct metallic odour at the junction of the Petawawa and Ottawa rivers, some dead fish, and lethargic behaviour among sturgeon.

WATCH | Video of stur‐ geon in the Ottawa River:

She provided CBC Indige‐ nous a video of her reaching into the river and touching one of the big bottom feed‐ ers. She was able to lift a sturgeon out of the water with her bare hands, some‐ thing the avid angler and out‐ door enthusiast said she's never seen before.

There is no evidence link‐ ing this to the sewage issue, but like Haymond, given the lack of clarity, Chevrier is worried about the incident's possible impact on fish.

"It's quite alarming, and I wish that I had learned about it earlier on. I've been coming across an awful lot of anglers who have been catching fish and eating them," Chevrier said.

"It's just not right to have something like that going on in our territory and find out about it after the fact."

On April 23, an Environ‐ ment Canada enforcement officer issued a formal Fish‐ eries Act direction to deal with the issue, spokesperson

Samuel Lafontaine told CBC Indigenous.

These directions are "a compliance tool" that may be issued "when there is an unauthorized deposit of a deleterious substance into water frequented by fish or when there is a serious and imminent danger of such an incident, and immediate ac‐ tion is necessary."

CNL issued a second, more detailed bulletin April 24 that lists the corrective ac‐ tions CNL is taking or being directed to take.

These include increased effluent toxicity testing, a third-party supported toxicity evaluation and review of all facility operations, and a de‐ tailed review plus chemical analysis of all effluent and in‐ fluent at the plant.

CNL is also undertaking company-wide training on al‐ lowable releases, a review of all known discharges to the facility to identify abnormal activities, cessation of a rou‐ tine release at one of its labs, and facility improvements to restore the treatment pro‐ cess.

The organization is pro‐ viding biweekly progress re‐ ports to Environment Canada until the issue is resolved, which the department said is mandatory "when an acute lethality failure occurs."

CNL told CBC Indigenous the sewage plant is now passing toxicity tests but must secure another month of positive results before it can be declared back in com‐ pliance.

Biological treatment system disturbed

The plant is from 2019 and uses leading-edge environ‐ mentally friendly technology, CNL said.

The facility uses a biologi‐ cal treatment process known as activated sludge, which contains beneficial microor‐ ganisms, largely bacteria, that reduce pollutants in wastewater.

A civil engineering profes‐ sor at the University of Ot‐ tawa who specializes in wastewater said breakdowns of such facilities are rare but can happen.

Biological treatment like this is more cost effective than chemical treatment, Robert Delatolla said, but one pitfall is that the mi‐ croorganisms can be dis‐ turbed.

The system can go side‐ ways if a chemical substance that is toxic to the microor‐ ganisms enters the system and renders them non-vi‐ able.

"They could be killed, es‐ sentially. That's a potential reason for what's happening in Chalk River, simply from the communication that went out," he said.

Delatolla cited one line from CNL's second bulletin the cessation of a routine re‐ lease within one of its re‐ search laboratories. This sug‐ gests something from the laboratory may have dis‐ turbed the microorganisms in the sludge, the professor said.

"It sounds like toxicity from something that was re‐ leased from that lab. They want to look into that and in‐ dicate if that's where it's coming from."

Larissa Holman, director of science and policy at Ot‐ tawa Riverkeeper, a local reg‐ istered charity that advocates to protect the watershed, said CNL's bulletins raised questions instead of provid‐ ing answers.

"First of all, how severe was it? Because we have no idea with what's been provided," said Holman.

"It could be very minor, but because they failed com‐ pliance and they're going through all these steps, we don't know."

Both Holman and Delatol‐ la said it was reassuring to see the list of extensive mea‐ sures taken following the En‐ vironment Canada direction.

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) maintains a list of "nuclearrelated event reports" on its website but the non-compli‐ ant effluent at Chalk River was not listed as of May 2.

CNSC declined an inter‐ view request, declined to an‐ swer written questions and referred inquiries to Environ‐ ment Canada as the depart‐ ment responsible for waste‐ water regulations.