“…and NP still hasn’t filed for their environmental assessment on a new treatment facility”
From post on Clean up the Pictou County Pulp Mill
Some of the Comments on Post
GJH: The industrial approval for Northern Pulp also ends on this date.
TMD: Clean up the Pictou County Pulp Mill. Kathy Cloutier, Bruce Chapman and John Lohr all seem hell bent on making people think that closure date was arbitrary. Nope, it was by design to coincide with the end of this industrial approval.
GJH: Link to NSE Approval EFFECTIVE DATE: March 9, 2015 EXPIRY DATE: January 30, 2020
DW: It would be fantastic if the mill closed January 2020, but do we have to be exposed to, what I believe is excessive air emissions and effluent until that time comes? The past year has been brutal, is the government going to let this continue?
BB: TMB, what conclusions are you drawing?
TMB to BB: I’m not so much drawing conclusions but making points:
1) There’s 500 days left until effluent has to stop flowing into Boat Harbour, the clock’s ticking.
2) There’s not a lot of time left and NP still has to submit their plan in addition to actually building it IF they want to keep things moving without a bump. Their CLC meeting minutes from spring 2017 said that they need both the new treatment facility and Boat Harbour operating for 6 months concurrently. That means they would have to have it built by the end of July 2019 which is about 10 months away. Not a lot of time to build a waste water treatment facility. Either it’s not happening or they aren’t going to make that deadline.
3) Not making that deadline means either a) they are closing, b) they shut down for a while as they finish building the new facility or c) the govt approves an extension on their pumping Boat Harbour with effluent.
4) IF they are closing, the govt and the area really should look for what’s next. I know people are quick to point out that there have been other places shut down and we just kept moving on but there actually has been things done to help the workers. Michelin had a program when they cut back that would help back anybody starting their own business in the area and the govt helped retrain Trenton Works employees and find them new jobs.
5) IF they do shut down for a little bit, I’m curious how they make needing Boat Harbour to run concurrently to work.
6) IF they extend Boat Harbour either because NP can’t come up with another plan and the govt caves or if they were to extend its usage for a period of time, that’s not only a choice to continue the assault on our health and the environment but that’s a choice of racism for the sake of industry over righting an historic wrong. John Lohr has already suggested that there should be an extension to protect the mill. That tells me he’s in favour of continued racism – a point I brought up when talking with the other leadership candidates in hopes none of them want to walk down that road.
7) As pessimistic as it may sound, until the effluent stops entering BH we are not there. One thing that you can generally count on with Stephen McNeil is that when he decides on something, he rarely changes his mind. I have some confidence that we will hit that date and the effluent will stop because of that but I’m always left with an ‘I’ll believe it when I see it’ feeling.
CS: One other point TMD, Steven MacNeil cut northern Pulp’s contract short by 10 years, which is 10 years of lost wages, for northern pulp and it’s employees it’s gonna be interesting to say the least what takes place in these next 500 days
TMD: CS, it will be interesting. This is why the date of Jan 30, 2020 is so interesting. If NP are not issued a new Industrial Approval, they wouldn’t be able to operate so there would not be any lost wages/profits going forward because they wouldn’t be able to operate. Not sure if that’s the stance the province would take if the shit hits the fan, but that date is goingt o be a big one in NS history for so many reasons.
DW: September 5, 2018 NP set up a new company for their wood lot holdings. Interesting move ??
and Comments pn the Shared Post on WWNS:
AM: environmental racism? can someone explain this term to me?
WWNS: Internet definition:”environmental racism refers to socially marginalized racial minority communities which are subjected to disproportionate exposure of pollutants, the denial of access to sources of ecological benefits (such as clean air, water, and natural resources), or both.” Boat Harbour is First Nations land and from day one back 50+ years ago, the Mi’kmaw people were lied to by government and industry, told the water would remain pure, their fishery was safe, and so on. For an in depth description read Joan Baxter’s book “The Mill”.
AM: so this is a pretty serious crime then…how is this not being treated like theft and tresspassing for starters, legally i mean?
TMD: Well, it’s been environmental racism from theh start. Canada used to do this all of the time. Over the past couple of decades we’ve been transitioning away from this sort of thing. Typing all of that sounds so horrible that it wasn’t prevented in the first place and we’re only slowly digging our way out. I think it’s only being treated as a ‘times are changing’ sort of thing because of the huge mess it would cause to completely go down that road. Not ideal but still better than building and stealing homes a la Africville or building more residential schools.