Shell's company logo is pictured at a gas station in Zurich April 8, 2015. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) -
The Ontario government on Tuesday ordered Shell Canada, a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell , to pay C$825,000 (£546,727) in fines for discharging a contaminating odour from its Sarnia refinery in 2013.
In a statement, the Ontario Ministry for Environment and Climate Change said Shell had pleaded guilty to one offence of permitting a discharge of an odour containing mercaptan, a foul-smelling gas.
The Shell Sarnia Manufacturing Centre is located in Corunna, Ontario, and on Jan. 11, 2013, employees discovered a leak from a line containing mercaptan, which flowed into an on-site ditch that empties into the refinery's storm sewer system.
The odour affected a number of people in the nearby Aamjiwnaang First Nation, with several complaining of sore eyes and throats, headaches, nausea and vomiting.
Shell was fined C$500,000 for the offence, plus a victim surcharge of C$125,000 and ordered to donate C$200,000 to the Aamjiwnaang First Nation.
(Reporting by Nia Williams; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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