Paper Excellence, which owns the factory, says the benchmarks are not the same as the environmental standards it met. The mill closed in 2020 after failing to secure approval for a proposed wastewater treatment plant. The School for Resource and Environmental Studies used publicly available government data to compare annual atmospheric emissions of seven pollutants from nine mills in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador between 2002 and 2019. For most of this time frame, Northern Pulp in Pictou County far exceeded the minimum limits set by the Environment and Climate Change Canada for a pollutant known as Total Particulate Matter 2.5. “This is the tiniest particle that can enter the lungs and can have an impact on human health,” said Tony Walker, who wrote a paper based on research by graduate student Giannina Massa. “It exceeded the limit by 100,000 percent. It was shocking when we compared it to the other mills.”
“Mass overruns”
These levels dropped dramatically after Paper Excellence installed a machine called a particle capture device in 2015. “To put that in perspective, other mills with similar activities were… reasonably and comfortably below the benchmarks before 2016,” Walker said. “But I wonder why it went on so long that there were not only moderate excesses, but such huge excesses for so long.”
Most mills above the thresholds
The study compared the annual emissions of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, total particulate matter (TPM), PM2.5, PM10, sulfur dioxide and volatile organic compounds listed in the National Pollutant Release Catalog. Estimated annual releases above the thresholds enable voluntary self-reporting in the register, however there are no implications for exceedances. The recommended limits are not environmental standards, but part of a “best practice” approach taken by the federal government. The researchers report that total annual emissions from Atlantic mills were “several orders of magnitude” higher than the federal benchmarks proposed by the Environment and Climate Change Canada. Pulp mills produced higher pollutant loads than paper mills. “Given that most of the time all the factories exceeded the reference limits, it would be useful to compare how dangerous these releases are with the inclusion of a ceiling or threshold or to change the reference unit to allow comparison with other standards and countries, “the study states.
Northern Pulp Response
“This study confuses the reference thresholds with the actual environmental standards. The reference threshold mentioned in the report obliges a factory to report when it exceeds this threshold. It does not mean that the plant has exceeded an environmental standard,” the company said in response. email to CBC News.
Northern Pulp said its Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change industry approval required that the particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions from the facility not contribute to exceeding ambient air quality standards for fine particles.
“Since Paper Excellence acquired Northern Pulp and installed air monitoring stations in 2011, standards have never been exceeded,” the company said in a statement.
The statement failed to mention that for three consecutive years – 2015, 2016 and 2017 – air emissions exceeded the levels set in its industrial approval. Nor was it referring to the legal challenge the company launched due to the terms of its industrial approval, including particulate levels.
Northern Pulp told CBC News that the study confuses reference limits with actual environmental standards. (Jill English / CBC)
On Tuesday, Paper Excellence announced that it would go to court seeking to overturn the terms of reference for the environmental assessment of its proposed mill reopening plan.
The company claims the terms are “irrational in many areas, including the failure to set definitive limits, standards and regulations to be met.”
The province argues that “it is up to the proposer … to determine the overall impact of the project and to propose specific boundaries that a particular host environment can support.”
Supports the study and findings
Tony Walker says federal thresholds need work. “What we pointed out somewhat as a recommendation in the document was why should there be even a lower limit in the first place, if nothing really is done about it?” he said. The study is a ceiling at which emission levels will be considered hazardous and subject to sanctions. “Then we have some teeth in enforcement, or at least a policy can be implemented according to which mills or … other facilities can be assessed based on the risk to the human health of the environment.” Recognized that levels are not an environmental standard, “but compared to comparable industries across the region, Northern Pulp clearly does not follow the Code of Practice proposed by the Environment and Climate Change Canada”.
