Shell Canada fined C$825,000 for 2013 refinery odor leak

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - The Ontario government on Tuesday ordered Shell Canada, a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, to pay C$825,000 ($620,487.36) in fines for discharging a contaminating odor from its Sarnia refinery in 2013. In a statement, the Ontario Ministry for Environment and Climate Change said Shell had pleaded guilty to one offense of permitting a discharge of an odor 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 odor 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 offense, 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)