"A license to de-regulate pulp pollution" is how Reach for Unbleached characterizes a recent report on British Columbia's Zero AOX Regulation.

The 1992 AOX regulation is the legacy of a massive citizen movement. When pulp mill pollution led to more and more BC coastal fisheries closures in the early 1990s, widely diverse industries, workers, and activists joined to demand regulation of the BC industry. They got it. The regulation required pulp mills to reduce their AOX output to zero by December 2002. (AOX is a family of chlorinated organic compounds, including dioxin and furans. In the pulp industry, the chlorine originates from bleaching in kraft pulp mills.)

Now the BC government questions the need to go to zero, and that achievement is at risk. They appointed a science panel to review the need for the regulation.

In March, the science panel reported that they found:

• No evidence that current levels of AOX discharge presented a "demonstrable risk to the ambient aquatic environment that could be attributed to AOX."
• "No evidence available at this time to indicate that further reductions of effluent AOX beyond that already achieved would result in any demonstrable environmental benefit."

The panel made several recommendations:

• "Elimination of AOX is not a high priority as an environmental goal."
• It is "desirable to limit AOX discharges to levels comparable to those currently being discharged by the BC mills ... [to] ensure that the benefits achieved in recent years ... are not lost."
• "... There could be significant environmental benefit from ensuring that discharges of [kraft black liquor] are minimized," because of the strong evidence that black liquor causes sub-lethal toxicity to aquatic organisms.

How much can we rely on this 'science'?

The BC government claims to want to use science as a basis for decision-making, but their strategy seems to fit predetermined ends. The Panel, asked to determine impact on aquatic life, was composed of two engineers and one chemist -- no biologists, toxicologists, geneticists or ecosystem specialists. The "open and transparent" process consisted of the panel accepting electronic scientific submissions for ten days before their report was released, and a two hour public meeting one week afterwards.

Narrow Terms of Reference meant the Panel could not consider legitimate elements of public policy such as worker and community health and safety, the correlation of chlorine elimination to the reduction of other pollutants, including even air pollutants, and sustainability issues for the industry such as the need for a modern, efficient industry that makes paper as well as pulp.

With such a narrow focus, the review process has led to significant errors and omissions:

• The narrow use of "demonstrated risk to the aquatic environment" as the only gauge of whether eliminating AOX was important. First there were no marine biologists on the panel to help assess that risk, and second, there are many issues beyond aquatic environment that should contribute to the decision-making.
• The panel's conclusion that "the maintenance of existing AOX discharge levels would insure that no significant AOX-related risk to the ambient aquatic environment would arise in the future from the discharge of bleached chemical pulp mill effluents in British Columbia." This idea of guaranteeing no future discovery of harm goes beyond science, and into faith.

Despite its limitations, this panel did note that current AOX levels should be maintained, but questions remain because mills discharge at different levels. How should this be implemented?

Finally, the panel found evidence of such blatantly poor practice at some BC mills that they broke with their tightly crafted terms of reference. They pointedly recommend that BC mills be required to improve their control over releases of black liquor waste. These spills are strongly linked to harming fish.

Closed loop systems offer the answer to many pulp mill pollution problems, and Zero AOX is the only current regulation which pushes mills in that direction. It's a regulation that British Columbia sorely needs.

* Staff, Reach for Unbleached!

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BC Hydro Promotes Power Smart Pulp Mills

BC Hydro wants pulp and paper mills to get Power Smart, and they are offering new incentive programs to spur them on. Over the next ten years of Power Smart across the province, Hydro hopes to achieve a yearly savings of 3,500 GWh of electricity (enough for 350,000 homes) and 1.3 million tonnes of green house gas emissions.

Studies of the heat processes in ten mills have found savings in natural gas, and cut CO2 emissions by roughly 500,000 MT/year. Last year, two pulp mills were selected for a program which supports process improvements to increase energy efficiency. Five mills have joined the new Industrial Power Smart Rate Program where BC Hydro offers incentives to industries which become more energy efficient.

Further Power Smart initiatives are being piloted in selected areas of BC, and three substantial energy savings opportunities are being studied. BC Hydro says the potential savings related to these three projects are 55 GWh.

BC Hydro has also conducted complete energy surveys on eight mills, finding cost effective measures worthy of further study. BC Hydro says they will support these initiatives and others through incentive dollars where the projects make environmental and economic sense.

* Elisha Odowichuk, BC Hydro Media Relations

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Paper from California Reeds

A new wood-free pulp shows promise. Samoa Pacific Cellulose has done their first trial run of bleached pulp from a bamboo-like plant, Arundo Donax. The new pulp, called Samoa Cane, will supply wood-free pulp for printing and tissue papers. Worldwide patents have been filed on the pulping process.

Samoa Cane pulp is claimed to be superior to other pulps. It gives twenty five times the useable fibre as timber on a per acre annual basis, can be processed into pulp with significantly less chemical use, and offers significant benefits in end use applications.

Arundo Donax grows wild in southern California. This perennial grass grows up to 30 feet high in a year, and can be harvested annually. The plant can thrive in poor soils with relatively little water, and is counted as a greenhouse gas reducer.

The company says the new product is attracting considerable interest, particularly from markets with environmental preferences, such as Japan. It has potential to become a fibre source in regions where trees are scarce, such as China, and will be cost competitive due to its rapid annual growth.

Samoa Pacific manufactures Totally Chlorine Free (TCF) bleached and unbleached kraft pulp, and is a recognized leader in key Asian markets. It is the only kraft mill in North America certified 100% TCF.

* Press Release, March 2002, Samoa Pacific Sales, Ph: (413)567-1601, email: Fitz@SamoaPulp.com

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New Bleaching Enzymes

Genetically modified poplars may provide an enzyme that will replace chlorine in pulp-bleaching. In the latest in molecular farming, an enzyme from fungi has been inserted into hybrid poplar leaves. The enzyme, which develops in the leaf after harvest, can bleach pulp, and bring in up to $150 a pound. The project is nowhere close to the commercial stage yet. Researchers at the University of Minnesota have engineered 25 of these trees so far. If they are successful, a plantation could earn landowners up to $10,000 per acre each year.

To safeguard nature, this enzyme does not develop before harvest. The trees themselves will not flower, so they won't contaminate the native population.

* Duluth Minnesota Star Tribune, Feb 2002

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Hydro Plans Concern Crofton

Norske Canada's Crofton mill warns of massive layoffs if the BC government adopts a proposed plan to split up BC Hydro and hike energy rates.

A report from a Liberal government energy task force proposes large-scale deregulation of energy. The projected increase in electricity rates could be up to 60 percent for industry, which currently pays half of the consumer price.

Norske Canada is BC Hydro's biggest single customer and says new directions in BC's energy policy are a recipe for economic disaster. They own four mills in BC - Crofton, Powell River, Port Alberni and Elk Falls in Campbell River - buying roughly $150 million of energy from BC Hydro each year. The potential rate hike could add up to $50 per tonne to production costs.

Norske Canada warns that this could mean layoffs and reduced production. If the deregulation is inevitable, they want the recommendations phased in over 20 years.

* Cowichan News Leader, March 2002

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Sponsored by Reach for Unbleached! #708-207 West Hastings, Vancouver BC V6B 1H7; Ph: (604)879-2992; Fax: (604)879-2272; ritchlin@rfu.org; http://www.rfu.org

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