Northern Pulp's wastewater treatment centre at Boat Harbour, with aerators that help bring oxygen back in to the water.
BOAT HARBOUR ? It?s a decades-old issue that just won?t go away, much like the odorous smell from Northern Pulp that lingers in Boat Harbour.
The timeless question of what can be done about the unknown health issues and odours from the mill while ensuring economic sustainability is being taken up by a new group through their Facebook group titled ?Clean up the Pictou County Pulp Mill.?
It was started about a week ago and since then it?s amassed almost 1,700 members and counting. The idea for the group came from people who feel the mill has negatively affected their family?s health: Paul Gregory and Matt Gunning.
?We?d always talk about the mill and the uneasy feeling about it,? said Gunning, a Lyons Brook resident all his life. ?We?ve all kind of been hit with cancer so it makes you think.?
Gregory, who lives in Ottawa has worked in environmental affairs with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. He wished that it were better circumstances that brought him home to Pictou.
?My mom was diagnosed with cancer, a brain tumour,? said Gregory. ?She?s currently in palliative care.?
According to the Facebook group, the goal of this group is to create awareness and share information and stories about living around the bleached kraft pulp mill, located at Abercrombie Point, Pictou County, and its waste treatment facility Boat Harbour.
?We don?t advocate for the closing of the mill,? said Gregory. ?Obviously there needs to be a balance of economic and environmental concerns.?
Gunning and Gregory feel that the technology exists to make the mill operate cleaner and that a cleanup of Boat Harbour is long overdue.
?People who live here currently, people who?ve left and those who?d like to retire here don?t want to have an environment like this in Pictou County,? said Gregory.
The number of health stories posted has the group advocating for a full epidemiological study of the region and what role, if any, the mill has and is playing in Pictou County residents? health.
?The mill has been listed as a health factor in various studies done in Pictou County,? said Gunning. ?We want a study that will conclude once and for all the effects of living near the mill.?
Back in 1989, Dr. Daniel Reid, chief of staff at Sutherland Harris Memorial Hospital in Pictou, concluded that the air emissions from the Scott pulp mill, now Northern Pulp, were the reason for the ?statistically significant incidence of respiratory illness? in the Pictou hospital.
The 2008 health status profile released by the Pictou County Health Authority noted that the county had the highest rates of chronic respiratory disease and other respiratory disease in Nova Scotia.
?You?d have to be na?ve to not see the connection,? said Gregory.
But not all are convinced the mill is as harmful as it?s made out to be.
Don Breen, a manager at Northern Pulp, said the mill?s huge, white smoke plumes look more menacing than they really are.
?The mill has several wet scrubbers used to scrub air emissions out of the flue gas,? said Breen. ?Also contained would be sulfur components (total reduced sulphur), particulate matter (salt, wood particles and lime) and other minor components similar to other kraft mills world wide.?
The Facebook group has indirectly stated that cancer in the area may be linked to the plant. Breen said he doesn?t recall any scientific studies linking the pulp and paper industry to cancer.
As for Boat Harbour, Breen said the wastewater treatment system is owned by the Province of Nova Scotia and operated by the mill since 1996 under a long-term lease arrangement that runs until 2030.
?The treatment facility has been upgraded several times since 1996 and is well in compliance with all federal and provincial regulations, standards and requirements and is among the top treatment systems in Canada,? he said.
At least one post on the Facebook group claimed there are toxins including heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium, and levels of dioxins and furans that exceed even those considered acceptable for industrial areas. Breen said this is simply untrue.
?Heavy metals, furans or dioxins are not byproducts of our operations and are not generated by Northern Pulp and are not deposited by Northern Pulp into Boat Harbour.?
Another post on the group indicated that biomass from Boat Harbour may be burned as fuel at the mill, a statement that Breen said is false.
?The mill does not burn this material in its boiler.?
He said that the solid material that settles in the wastewater treatment settling ponds is mainly wood waste and lime and that the material is trucked back to the mill site to cover the mill's industrial landfill site.
?This material enhances the growing of vegetation on the mill's closed landfill areas,? said Breen.
As for Gunning, a post on the Facebook page said that a meeting would be called in the coming days to discuss the group?s next step.
john.brannen@ngnews.ca
On Twitter: @NGNewsJohn
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