Letters to the editor

(Letters to the editor, Powell River Peak)

Company's ad details wrong

Catalyst Paper Corporation made several factual errors in the full-page advertisement in your May 23, 2007 issue ["Shared interests, responsible choices," May 23].

From the Catalyst ad: "Fly ash is created when wood is burned, similar to what you see in a fireplace, beach fire or wood-burning stove."

Fly ash is not something that is left behind after a fire. Fly ash particles are more than 1,000 times smaller than ash remnants.

Catalyst also states: "There never has been evidence of leakage from the mini-landfill and we're determined to keep it that way".

In fact there are at least two pieces of evidence that show that there is a massive amount of leakage.

By calculating the amount of water going into the mini-landfill via rainfall statistics, and checking that against the amount that is captured, if there were no leak, the two measurements would be the same. But when the volume of water calculated from the amount of rain falling on the area is compared to the amount that is retrieved, there is a massive discrepancy. About one-third of the rainwater is not captured.

Catalyst measures the amount being pumped out, but does not release the information to the ministry of environment.

Each time Powell River water is tested by the mill, there are pollutants present. Polluted leachate enters the aquifer below the landfill, that in turn enters the river through the layer of fractured rock below the surface of the river, and/or through springs. This layer of fractured rock acts as a system of pipes to conduct the missing leachate to the river. This also applies to the untested 39-metre-deep aquifer and the untested regional groundwater table. When considering the massive effects of dilution of contaminants in the river water that occurs from the approximately 100,000 cubic meters per day of water flow, this shows that the source of contamination is persistent and significant. The company has known these results for years.

If what Catalyst declares were true, there would be no evidence of leachate anywhere in the river water that is tested and used by the mill.

There is a big problem here.

Paper mill plan wrong

We have been residents of Wildwood for over 30 years. During that period of time we have put a lot of time and effort into our home and community and have always enjoyed its semi-rural aspect.

During these years we have grudgingly accepted changes, which have detracted from our neighourhood's bucolic nature. We have adjusted to a nearby sewage lagoon, and when the original mill landfill was proposed, we were assured that an impervious liner and an asphalt cap would minimize the risk to the environment ["Rally opposes landfill plan," May 30].

Now, however, Catalyst Paper Corporation is proposing a massive expansion to its landfill. We are completely opposed to this threat to our health and lifestyle. The landfill will be a huge weight sitting on a slope in an area that has been assessed as relatively high seismic risk. In addition, leachate is currently escaping the site's collection system and draining into Powell River and the ocean. Another danger is the dioxins and furans in the fly ash. Dust will inevitably be carried by the prevailing winds from the landfill, directly into our neighbourhood, which includes an elementary school and organic farms.

How can Catalyst consider transforming our pristine neighbourhood into an industrial waste site to rival New York State's Love Canal and Nova Scotia's Sydney tar ponds? The company's desire for short-term profits will lead to decades, if not centuries, of problems.

We can only hope that Catalyst will see the folly of locating a nine-storey high toxic waste dump so close to a residential area.

Dump site undesirable

I've stopped talking to friends about the beautiful property I bought in Wildwood for my retirement. They know about the Catalyst Paper Corporation proposal to greatly increase the amount of toxic waste dumped in the existing landfill and are surprised at my decision to move to a community that has such little regard for environmental security ["Rally opposes landfill plan," May 30].

The potential for toxic leachate and fly ash to contaminate Wildwood, Powell Lake, and surrounding areas is a health risk to all living things and surely cannot be tolerated by a city that is looking to welcome new families and retirees. If the toxic landfill proposal goes ahead, I expect that fewer people will consider Powell River a desirable place to live and build their future. If I had known about the landfill proposal before I bought my lot, I would definitely have had second thoughts. Please, not in my backyard--or yours.

Resident calls for leadership

Shame, shame, shame on the mayor and council. What kind of leadership thinks it can smugly ignore a community concern like the fly ash issue when several hundred intelligent, level-headed citizens have raised their voices ["Rally opposes landfill plan," May 30]? It's no kind of leadership at all.

Landfill waste causes worry

After reading last week's Catalyst Paper Corporation edition of the Peak, I felt I must respond. The full-page promotion that the company placed in the paper, as well as the advertisements scattered throughout, lauded the company's achievements and minimized its impacts and some of it's current hopes ["Shared interests, responsible choices," May 23]. The company is right to be proud of its achievements regarding energy efficiency (it won an award), reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and hiring practices, and I for one applaud any and all actions taken to reduce the pollution footprint of its operation.

However, none of these alone or together should give the company any cause to rest on its self-congratulatory laurels, and Catalyst vice-president and Powell River division manager Brian Baarda's comment that misinformation is being spread about town regarding their landfill is pure spin. The information being promoted for consideration by the community comes from the latest draft Golder report, as well as information from Agra & Associates, documents and memos from the Ministry of Environment obtained through the Freedom of Information Act Freedom and Protection of Privacy Act.

The Catalyst mill in Powell River is ranked by the Canadian Environmental Law Association number 61 out of 707 worst polluters in B.C., and 345 in the country. The company is applying for an extension to their permit to dump fly ash (collected while trying to escape their emissions stack) in a 20-metre-high mountain on the edge of Wildwood. The ash contains, among other things, dioxins and furans, which are ranked more hazardous than most chemicals in eight out of nine ranking systems.

In August 2001, Norske Skog released $1.3 billion out of the company's accounts (the largest of its kind in Canadian history) and gave it to shareholders, then went into debt to become Catalyst. The company is now crying poverty to the city for tax reductions and to the ministry of environment for an exception to current safety guidelines so that they can create an unprecedented mountain of ash. This on top of a site that is known to contain special (read hazardous) waste.

When will this nonsense stop?

Landfill site must be shut

No more material, toxic or otherwise, should be dumped at the Catalyst Paper Corporation Wildwood landfill site ["Waste site requires plan," May 16]. The current landfill should not be there at all. It needs to removed and remediated.

The Catalyst landfill proposal is an environmental nightmare being foisted on a town that has already had more than its share of poisons from the mill enter its ecosystem. Not only is it not a human, or species-friendly, proposal, it is an immoral proposition.

Waste site requires plan

I am one of many Powell River residents working hard to oppose Catalyst Paper Corporation's application to the Ministry of the Environment to expand the Wildwood landfill site ["Residents oppose landfill plan," April 25]. Before you write me off as another zealous environmentalist, I would like to explain that I have a lot of appreciation and gratitude for the mill's financial contribution to our community over many years.

My father was a welder in the mill for 37 years before he retired, and I worked there for six summers while attending university. I was born and raised in the Townsite and always thought that a little bit of fly ash or unpleasant kraft odor from the mill was the price you had to pay for good-paying jobs and prosperity. Over the years that I have lived in this town, I have been loyal and spoken highly of the mill.

Now that I am 51 years old, with a bit more perspective about the situation, I realize that there comes a point when one must draw the line in the sand and say enough is enough with regard to the disposal of industrial waste in our community.

Catalyst must do more research and work harder to find other ways of disposing of their waste, rather than dumping it so close to the well-established neighborhoods in Wildwood and the Townsite.

We do not want a situation where we are left with a toxic dump for our children and grandchildren to deal with. This would be a terrible legacy for Catalyst and for our community as well.

I urge Catalyst to do the right thing by working towards decommissioning the Wildwood landfill site, and looking for other, more environmentally sound ways of disposing of industrial waste.

Together, let's look for a win-win situation on this issue.

Dear Editor,

The April 25th issue of the peak made the following statement regarding the proposed super-expansion of the Catalyst's Powell River industrial waste site located in Wildwood:

Rather than building outward, the plan is to expand vertically within the existing site's 15-acre (six-hectare) footprint, to a maximum height of 20 metres, which is nine metres below the top of the rock bluff bordering the site.

- An information flyer opposing the landfill distributed to Wildwood residents indicated the proposed expansion would be 10 stories high. In fact, 20 metres is five stories high, using measurements for commercial buildings. While there is no attribution on the flyer, a Wildwood resident, Nelle Maxey, emailed the Peak and said the 10 storey height used in the flyer was based on information obtained from Catalyst.

In fact, the information flyer stated that the waste heap specifically would measure 90 feet from highway grade or 72 feet from the top of the existing dump. Catalyst's own material states:

"The waste in the Phase one landfill was estimated by MB Paper Ltd.'s staff to range in thickness from 8 m to 11 m ..." (page 2 of Environmental Assessment draft)

and,

" The maximum thickness of Phase 2 waste is anticipated to be about 18 m..." (page 22 of same document)

This puts the total height of the dump between 85.3 and 95.1 feet. (8 to 11 m + 18 m)

You may wish to quibble about the height of a "story", but please don't attempt to paint Wildwood residents as given to exaggeration about this travesty.

The fact is that this proposed dump is not only a blight on the landscape ( a HUGE blight in fact), it also endangers the health of this community and is in clear violation of provincial siting criteria for municipal solid waste.

Sincerely,
Michael