Dryden residents spent some anxious hours wondering if the community would be evacuated following a chlorine dioxide leak from Weyerhaeuser's pulp and paper mill on July 30.
Early estimates were that up to 3,000 gallons of the corrosive chemical escaped from a damaged pipe. The chemical is stored in three tanks, two inside the mill and one outside. Chlorine dioxide is used for bleaching pulp at the mill. Calm weather conditions kept the contamination isolated at the mill. There were no injuries reported.
Green-yellow gas was noticed drifting south along the Wabigoon River where residents were evacuated as a precaution. The all-clear signal was given early the next day after the gas was pumped from a leaking tank into another tank.
The Ministry of Environment has launched an investigation into the cause.
