While the local Abitibi-Consolidated mill was named as one of the “Dirty Dozen” polluters in the province in a report by the Sierra Legal Defence Fund released last week, manager John Harrison said the mill here is in fact in line with air emission standards set by the Ministry of Environment.
“We always take environmental regulations very seriously,” he remarked last Friday.
In 1999, he noted, Abitibi spent more than $9 million to install a new incinerator in the kraft mill in order to reduce Total Reduced Sulphur (TRS) emissions.
This machine takes highly-concentrated odour streams and burns them into sulphur dioxide, which then is “scrubbed out” in a chemical process.
In fact, Harrison said that in the last 34,000 TRS measurements taken at the mill here, the compliance rate has been 99.2 percent.
“We’re committed to continual improvement. We’re committed to staying within the guidelines,” said Harrison.
“We’re continually looking at ways to reduce odour,” echoed environmental services manager Gary Rogozinski, adding the new incinerator “made a big impact” in reducing the sulphurous smell from the mill.
He noted the odours from the lagoon continue to be a problem, but that the mill has not stopped trying to find a way to reduce it in the future.
Rogozinski added the mill had a study done in 2000 to determine the effect, if any, of emissions on those who breathe them in. “Basically, it says the concentration you smell in the air here has no impact on people’s health,” he remarked.
According to the Sierra Legal Defence fund, the mill here reported 74 air pollution violations (which Harrison noted would be better termed “exceedences of guidelines”) in 2001, and has been non-compliant between the years of 1999 and 2002.
But these violations of provincial pollution laws, along with all the others counted in the report, were all self-reported to the province by the mill and did not necessarily result in investigations.
Of the the over 1,000 reported air pollution violations reported in the entire province of Ontario in 2001, only 16 charges were laid.
The report, called “Cracking Down on Polluters,” provided a detailed analysis of government data on air and water pollution violations for 2001—the most recent year for which data is available.
The intention of the report is to advocate the new Liberal government at Queen’s Park for stronger enforcement of pollution laws, as well as encourage the MoE to provide the public with full information regarding violations of both air and water pollution laws through their website.
The report documents that in 2001 there were more than 2,300 violations of provincial wastewater laws, including violations of pollutant limits, sewage spills, and bypasses, as well as violations of administrative procedures.
The list of Ontario’s “Dirty Dozen Polluters” includes many companies that have been in chronic non-compliance with air and water pollution laws for several years, according to the Sierra Legal Defence Fund.
Chinook Group Limited (Sombra) and Stepan Canada Inc. (Ramara) top the list of the worst offenders with 355 and 341 wastewater violations, respectively, in 2001.
The six worst offenders of air pollution laws, they said, included Tembec Industries (Smooth Rock Falls), Abitibi-Consolidated (Fort Frances), Norampac Inc. (Thunder Bay), Bowater Pulp and Paper (Thunder Bay), Kimberly Clark Inc. (Terrace Bay), and Marathon Pulp Inc. (Marathon).
The top six violators of wastewater violations also included Haley Industries (Renfrew), London-Oxford Water Pollution Control Plant (London), Cabot Canada Ltd. (Sarnia), and Stelco Hilton Works (Hamilton).
Of the “Dirty Dozen” named above, only Stelco was charged for violations which were reported in 2001.
Sierra Legal has been producing annual reports on non-compliance with pollution laws since the province stopped providing full information to the public in 1999.
Sierra Legal collected this information each year through Freedom of Information requests.
The full report is available at www.sierralegal.org
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
