Northern Pulp has received the terms of reference it must use for anenvironmental assessment of its proposed reopening at the Pictou County pulpmill. These terms do not include the detailed pollution standards parent company Paper Excellence desired.
“The [environmental assessment]Process does not propose and identify specific effluent or emission limits,” Nova Scotia government stated in the 53 page terms of reference document released this week.
“It is up the proponent to determine the overall impact of a project and to recommend specific limits that a given receiving environment can support.”
Paper Excellence stated that the modernization would cost $350 million, eliminate the sulphur smell, and significantly reduce the volume of contaminants in treated effluent.
The company requested that the province use federal pulp and papers effluent regulations to set the objectives for the terms of reference. It replied that it was disappointed.
Paper Excellence released, “We will take some of the time to review and consider all options going forward,”
The province ordered a Class 2-level environmental assessment to modernize the facility, which would include a new effluent treatment plant. It is expected that the review will take two years.
According to the terms of reference, specific emission, effluent and water use limits will be authorized in separate permits that are granted after the environmental evaluation is complete.
A lobby group representing the forest industries condemned the absence of concrete targets.
“How do I run a race when I don’t know where it ends?” Robin Wilber, sawmiller and CEO of Elmsdale Lumber, is chairperson of Friends of a New Northern Pulp.
“Nobody wants to construct a plant that isn’t environmentally friendly. How can you pass an environmental assessment without any standards? No company from any industry would want to establish a business in Nova Scotia.
Friends of the Northumberland Strait is a group that opposed a plan by a previous mill to pump treated effluent into the Strait. They said that Northern Pulp must prove that its proposal will not cause significant environmental effects or adverse effects that are unacceptable.
“Northern Pulp must carry out a number studies in the region where they intend to operate in order to provide more precise standards. “Until those studies are complete, it’s impossible to give specific standards,” said spokespersonJillGraham-Scanlan.
She accused the company, claiming it was trying to change the laws of environmental assessment in Nova Scotia.
She said, “We are grateful that the Department of Environment and Climate Change didn’t bow to that pressure by Northern Pulp.”
The company is currently suing Nova Scotia.$450 million for the decision to close down the mill’s former effluent treatment plantIt was 10 years before the lease expired. Two years ago, the Boat Harbour facility was closed and the mill had to close.