So here we are, time has run out and it will literally be a choice between “No Pipe/No Mill” and “Pipe in the Strait/No Mill” which has one logical outcome: No Mill (and a lot of angry people). But don’t expect a logical outcome.
Map with features on a map posted on a Northern Pulp website. “Our proposal is to construct an Effluent Treatment Facility on land at the mill property, and lay a pipeline on the bottom of Pictou Harbour, avoiding constraints as much as possible, that will carry the treated effluent to an outfall and multi-port diffuser in the Pictou Road area of the Northumberland Strait. The proposed location of the diffuser is within the same body of water (Pictou Road) as the discharge point for the existing Boat Harbour facility.”
Click on image to enlarge it
We are in a strange kind of space decision-wise regarding the Pictou Mill with Asia Pulp and Paper/Paper Excellence Canada/Northern Pulp/The Mill strategizing and negotiating in Trump style on two key issues – the type of Effluent Treatment Facility (ETF) that will replace the Boat Harbour treatment facility, and who pays for it – as deadlines for approval and construction of the ETF loom large.
The NS government didn’t help its bargaining position by imposing a deadline for shutting down Boat Harbour with no parameters on the alternatives, and it seems, no deadline for The Mill to have its plan ready for an EA. (View Boat Harbour Act – Bill 89)
The Jan 31, 2020 deadline for a new facility is fast approaching, and the Environmental Assessment, such as it is (a Type I assessment, not the more stringent Type 2 assessment) will begin only this summer and will last a minimum of 50 days.
Then, “dependent on the Minister of Environment’s decision, additional work under the EA may occur, or the project may be approved, or rejected.”
So if there is a go-ahead, there would be roughly one year at the most to construct the facility and put it in operation.
In the meantime Northern Pulp tells us “The initial consultation and scientific studies are underway and are expected to be completed by the late spring of 2018, including modeling of the receiving environment and evaluation of existing conditions and habitat”.
It is pretty clear from documents going back to 2015, that the only option ever given serious consideration was/is an Activated Sludge Treatment with the effluent being piped out some distance beyond the mouth of Pictou Harbour (a map on the company site shows a pipe extending less than 2 km from the mouth of the harbour – see map above).
In the meantime also, opposition to The Pipe is becoming more widespread:
Opposition is mounting against a plan by a kraft pulp mill in Nova Scotia to pump treated waste into the Northumberland Strait, with a group of Maritime fisheries organizations saying the effluent could harm marine life.
The group, which includes the Pictou Landing First Nation in Nova Scotia, said the proposal from Northern Pulp Nova Scotia Corp. could see the release of up to 90 million litres of effluent per day into the strait, posing a threat to fish species and protected areas along the coastline.
The other members of the group include the Gulf Nova Scotia Fleet Planning Board, the Maritime Fishermen’s Union, the Prince Edward Island Fishermen’s Association and the New Brunswick Fisheries Association.- Fisheries groups opposing Nova Scotia mill’s proposed effluent treatment plant Canadian Press in the Chronicle Herald, Mar 29, 2018
Those opposing the mill are also becoming more insistent that there be No Pipe in The Strait; only a closed loop system with no effluent discharge would be acceptable, the risks to fisheries, biodiversity and people are simply too great.
An alliance has been forged among the Gulf Nova Scotia Fleet Planning Board, the Maritime Fishermen’s Union, the Prince Edward Island Fishermen’s Association (PEIFA), the New Brunswick Fisheries Association and Pictou Landing First Nation.
Their purpose is to publicly and officially oppose the proposed discharge of Northern Pulp’s effluent into the Northumberland Strait – and to demand a federal environmental assessment into the matter. – No pipe in the strait: fisheries groups and First Nations to Northern Pulp
Sam Macdonald for the Chronicle Herald Mar 28, 2018
The Mill’s Position: No Pipe/No Mill and it’s pretty clear from documents filed in 2015 that they expect Nova Scotians to pay for the pipe (and the ETF).
‘Sound familiar? No Wall No DACA perhaps?
So here we are, time has run out and it will literally be a choice between “No Pipe/No Mill” and “Pipe in the Strait/No Mill” which has one logical outcome: No Mill (and a lot of angry people).
Regrettably there is one likely conclusion based on the history of Nova Scotia governments negotiations with pulp and paper concerns in the past: a pipe in the strait, a lot of angry people, NS pays for most it…The Mill, competing on an international stage* demands ever-more concessions from goverment and workers… and the mill eventually goes under anyway.
_______________
*(View The Sale of Edorado for some of the global stats, costs etc.)
I would like to think that the NS government has some really good strategists and lawyers and non-DNR, non-Mill forest industry people to look at the No Mill option and they will finally start playing hardball, but given all of the advantages they have given to The Mill legally and otherwise, that’s a stretch.
‘Caught between a Rock and a Hard Place you might say.
At a minimum, look forward to the 2020 deadline not being met and The Mill being shut down until the ETF is constructed and ready. (Thankfully, it’s very unlikely that the Pictou Landing First Nation would accept an extension of the deadline for closing the Boat Harbour facility.)
Another prediction: The Mill figured it would be better to extend the pipe much further out but are proposing a near shore site so that they can agree to at least one of the wimpy modifications they will be required to make.
————————–
I know this is a dismal post and I have put off writing about The Mill. It’s hard to think about The Mill and all of the suffering it has caused to people and environment. (I grew up close to a river downstream and often downwind from a Pulp and Paper Mill; we would catch fish in the river but didn’t eat them. I still have dreams about the dirty river and the sulfur smell.) But I don’t really blame The Mill – except when they get nasty locally, and clearcut tourist viewplanes. Business is business as they say. We have this situation because of successive NS governments, and the public at large not holding them fully accountable. From that perspective, I am encouraged by the firm and widespread opposition to The Pipe.
————————–
Just in via WWNS: Pictou Landing residents discuss potential remediation
Sam Macdonald in the News, Apr 5, 2018
It’s a pretty complicated and obviously very expensive process. So.. will we have a Northumberland Strait Remediation to deal with in another 50 years?
————————–
Some comments on WWNS
TMD: From Terri Fraser’s Law Amendments submission:
Courts have recognized that “in Canada we anticipate and expect that government will stand behind and comply with the contracts which it has entered into.” They have acknowledged that “it should not be a common or simple matter for the Crown to breach its agreements with impunity”
First off, where is the responsibility on their part to comply to contracts? They’ve had 12 infractions since 2012 and have pretty much skated by with one $697.50 fine from the province. That doesn’t sound like they’ve cared too much to stay within the context of their contract and the govt bent over backwards (or is it forwards?) for them. Then comes the Boat Harbour Act which was put in place because of THEIR effluent leak that spilled 47 million litres of effluent. They should be thankful for the Boat Harbour Act because without it, they would have had to cease operations in 2015. To me, the govt is well in their rights not to issue another industrial approval. NP has shown they can’t work within the conditions of what they agreed toFrom Terri Fraser’s Law Amendments submission:
Courts have recognized that “in Canada we anticipate and expect that government will stand behind and comply with the contracts which it has entered into.” They have acknowledged that “it should not be a common or simple matter for the Crown to breach its agreements with impunity”
First off, where is the responsibility on their part to comply to contracts? They’ve had 12 infractions since 2012 and have pretty much skated by with one $697.50 fine from the province. That doesn’t sound like they’ve cared too much to stay within the context of their contract and the govt bent over backwards (or is it forwards?) for them. Then comes the Boat Harbour Act which was put in place because of THEIR effluent leak that spilled 47 million litres of effluent. They should be thankful for the Boat Harbour Act because without it, they would have had to cease operations in 2015. To me, the govt is well in their rights not to issue another industrial approval. NP has shown they can’t work within the conditions of what they agreed to
DS: I vote no mill. Liverpool was a one industry town as well and faced a gloomy future when the paper mill closed. They have looked to the future and diversity and are now no longer under the control of a foreign owner that cares nothing for the people living there.
MH: I vote NO MILL as well… any industry that can’t take care of their waste, expects handouts every time we turn around..obviously isn’t VIABLE and should be GONE!! besides we might actually have better environmentally conscious indux=stries that thrive after it’s demise..
ADDENDUM April 7, 2018 – After the Mill
In a Letter the Ed in the CH, Don Wilson says we should be looking at redesign of the mill to give clearer air emissions and allow a closed loop system for effluents. he also noted that”There is a Facebook page — After the Mill 2018 — that is assembling ideas to create employment in Pictou County should there be no mill, or after it has been rebuilt as above. These and the mill cleanup would create more jobs than the current number of employees.” From the Facebook Page:
March 18, 2018: After communicating for months with others concerning the Pulp Mill on Abercrombie Point , N.S. it has become clear there are some , including some current employees , that can’t see jobs nor a good life in the greater community surrounding Pictou Harbour . This page will post ideas and comment about what jobs will be available after the smelly smog and harbour contamination has ceased .
Because this is an informational page there are no posts by / from the public nor industry . Industry has it’s page and has been posting there for awhile .
There are about a dozen posts on the page now, all seem very constructive. No names are given for the authors of the page.