About us

Powell River Legacy is a community group formed in response to the announcement by the local paper mill owned by Catalyst Corporation, of a proposal to apply for an application amendment to expand its industrial waste disposal site located in Powell River BC.

We are NOT in favor of mill closure or job loss, but rather, are promoting responsible waste management, and sustainable economics.

As a community, we share a common goal of establishing a legacy in Powell River which will benefit all who live and work here. Our legacy does not include an industrial waste dump within the City limits! The proposed vertical expansion of the landfill, if permitted, would leave an environmental catastrophe in its wake. Hardly an honorable legacy for our children and grandchildren.

Our specific objectives are:

1. Prevent the application amendment from being granted on the basis of

• Persistent and ongoing environmental contamination of both air and water as a direct threat to the health and welfare of the community,
• Lack of Ministry of the Environment inspection and enforcement,
• Insufficient monitoring and data collection on the part of the company,
• Unsuitability of the site itself due to the underlying perched water zones and the inability to track groundwater contamination in the fractured bedrock layer, and slope stability issues,
• The deficient and misleading nature of the Golder and Associates Draft Environmental Report, and
• Proximity to residential area of 600 homes.

2. Require Catalyst to close and remediate the landfill site.

3. Find alternative uses for the fly ash.

• Fly ash is a recyclable industrial waste.
• There is a Ministry of the Environment mandate to recycle and reuse industrial waste. This mandate must be enforced.
• Other countries (notably Japan and India) have developed processes for decontaminating and re-using virtually all of their fly ash as a concrete additive.
• The mill has shown little interest in pursuing this alternative giving only lip service to it so far.

Industrial Waste Dump Background:

• The pulp mill's landfill was started without a permit in the late 50's in an old gravel pit on a hill above the Wildwood neighbourhood, the river and the ocean. Toxic waste was haphazardly deposited there at that time. A permit was granted in the 70's before evironmental toxins became a general public concern.

• The bottom of the landfill is unlined and no one really knows the full extent of contaminants there. PCB contamination is probable. Such waste may erupt internally do to surrounding wastewood rot creating "pressure pockets", allowing seepage as the old steel barrels corrode and leak. Catalyst is now proposing to add 1.3 MILLION tons of flyash on top the old landfill.

• The present landfill was shut down in the mid 90's due in part, to contamination of local groundwater with spillage into the local source of drinking water, registering dioxins at concentrations of over 200 times the allowed upper limit. There were memos in the Ministry of the Environment about calling for a remediation, (declaring the landfill a Contaminated Waste Site and calling for a full scale remediation).

• The old landfill was terminally capped in the mid-nineties, although a small lined corner portion continues to receive ash from the mill boilers in the form of a liquid slurry. The practice of dumping dry-ash was stopped after residents complained about the clouds of (dioxin laden) dust blanketing the community. The mill was forced to find another alternative, and shipped its flyash to a site in Washington designed to receive industrial waste. This and other options still remain available.

Current Status:

• Provincial guidelines call for a 300 meter setback from homes and restaurants. That requirement can be made more or less stringent where there is “justification”. Catalyst feels that saving money is justification enough for siting a toxic waste site within 100 meters of at least 7 homes, within 300 meters of almost 100 homes and a restaurant, within 500 metres of a daycare center, and 575 meters downwind of the local elementary school. Wildwood is also zoned RA1 (residential agricultural), which means that flyash falling on the local organic farms will allow dioxins to bioaccumulate in the local farm animals, potentially making the meat unsafe for consumption.

• This is no ordinary landfill. Catalyst is proposing a super expansion of power-boiler flyash, which contains highly mobilized carcinogenic materials, and probably old kraft mill dregs, dumped on top of the old unlined site. They propose a 90 foot high, 6 hectare mountain, which would make it by far the largest man made structure in Powell River (aside from the mill itself). This mountain of ash would sit on a windy hill right next to the provincial highway towering over Wildwood community's main street, and would be visible from the Townsite and many more places within Powell River area.

• The studies done for the hired technical assessment of the site have had numerous flaws pointed out by members of the community. These were so serious that Catalyst admits it needs to do at least one of the studies over again. However, they are requesting the permit be granted before the new studies ever take place.

• Local residents have mounted a campaign to have the proposal rejected, and have the old industrial waste dump remediated. There has been a groundswell of support that continues to mount. The community energy has been focused through this website, which has collected many of the mill's public documents and financial documentation, letters from the community.

• Powell River Legacy hosted a rally on Sat. May 26th at the elementary school in Wildwood which concluded with a march to the landfill gates. There were aproximately 350 to 400 people in attendence, with performances by local musicians and speeches from residents. Our two petitions (paper and online) were formally handed over to Catalyst personnel at the landfill gates. The petitions at that time totalled over 2500 signatures.

• Catalyst has stated that they would be submitting their application amendment on June 8th 2007 to the Ministry of the Environment, however, as of this date we have received no substantial responses to our letters, and have heard no news about the application process from either Catalyst or the Ministry of the Environment.