METEGHAN, N.S. -
A Nova Scotia fisherman will have to ensure that holding tank water in which 18,000 kilograms of lobster may have been poisoned is safe before it's dumped, an environment official said Wednesday.
Lobster pound owner Paulin Robichaud of Meteghan said he found the dead lobsters -- about $280,000 worth -- late last month in a holding tank.
Robichaud said holes had been drilled into the building and there was a strange liquid on the ground.
The RCMP have been investigating the incident as a deliberate poisoning.
York Friesen of Environment Canada's environmental enforcement division says Robichaud is responsible for dumping the 158,000 litres of water.
"We advised (Robichaud's insurance company) to get the water tested before it's released into any water course,'' Friesen said Wednesday from Dartmouth, N.S.
"If it turns out their tests come back positive for a harmful substance, then we've suggested they contact a consultant to determine the best way to treat that, or neutralize that.''
Robichaud said that the contaminated water was still in the holding tank, and that he had not yet been told what to do with it.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the lobsters were taken to a site in Concession, N.S., where they would be properly disposed of.
"Our main concern is that these lobsters don't enter the food chain, and they did not,'' Rick Flohr, a senior policy analyst, said from Ottawa.
RCMP said Tuesday that autopsies would be performed on some of the lobsters to confirm what killed them. The results could take weeks.
