The Northern View provides local news from Prince Rupert & the Charlotte Islands in northern British Columbia and published a story on May 29 claiming the terminal was “knowingly allowing coal-laden water to cover the shoreline”

The newspaper published a statement from the terminal online on Thursday, addressing the allegations that appeared in the article.

“Since commencing operations in 1983, RTI has been strongly committed to environmentally sound terminal operating practices and to safeguarding the health and safety of its employees,” Ridley Terminals said in the statement.

“RTI takes the unattributed allegations contained in the The Northern View news article very seriously and is presently conducting an investigation into this matter to determine whether there is any factual basis for the issues that have been raised.”

The terminal outlined the steps it had undertaken in the past to ensure it met shipping guidelines, saying it was “in good standing with its permit and regulatory requirements and RTI is not the subject of any regulatory pollution abatement orders".

The Ridley Terminals bulk commodities facility is a federal Crown corporation that operates on land leased from the Prince Rupert Port Authority.

RTI is undergoing a multi-million dollar, four-year site expansion and infrastructure upgrade program, which will increase the annual throughput capacity from 12 million tonnes to 25Mt by early 2015.