Rio Tinto Fined $78,000 for Acid Spill in Canadian River

Canada fined Rio Tinto PLC’s Canadian subsidiary C$100,000 ($77,967) for dumping hundreds of liters of hydrochloric acid into a major river in Quebec.

Rio Tinto Alcan Inc.'s Arvida facility, an aluminum smelter nearly 300 miles northeast of Montreal, spilled 1,700 liters of the poisonous chemical into the Saguenay River between Dec. 13 and Dec. 15, 2016, Environment Canada announced in a news release April 30.

The company pleaded guilty in the Court of Quebec earlier this month to violating Section 36(3) of the Fisheries Act, ...