British Columbia

Weyerhauser target at public forum

Special to the Tribune

KAMLOOPS — More than 350 people
packed the Cariboo College gym here
March 2 to debate the issue of the envir-
onment and pulp production — and fired
questions for almost four hours to a panel
of union and industry representatives as
well as government scientists.

The forum, called by the city of Kam-
loops, brought together Jack McDonald,
manger of technical services for the
Weyerhauser Canada Ltd. pulp mill; Dr.
James Servizi, program head of the bio-
logical services branch.of the Department
of Fisheries and Oceans; Paul Merrell, a
U.S. environmental lawyer representing
the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of
Canada; and Dr. Mary O’Brien, represent-
ing the Thompson Watershed Coalition, a
local environmental group.

Kamloops Pulp, the mill operated by
Weyerhauser Canada and a major
employer in the Interior city, has been the
focus of environmental concern ever since
a 1989 federal report showed that pulp
mills are major polluters and the effluent
laced with organo-chlorine compounds
which they discharge into local waters can
have disastrous effects — which are
cumulative as they move up the food
chain.

The compounds, including highly toxic
dioxins and furans, are the result of chlo-
rine bleaching of the pulp and the high
concentrations of those toxins in shellfish
have forced shellfish closures in waters
close to coastal mills.

But the effects on fish and water quality
in the Thompson River where Kamloops
Pulp dumps its effluent have still not been
determined. And residents still don’t know
the long term effects of the mill-polluted
air which one meeting participant said
“smells like a public toilet.”

But it is the company’s responsibility
“to inform you of the hazards of what it is
about to do to you,” Merrell told the meet-
ing. And if the industry knows what it is
doing, it should be held responsible for its
actions, he said.

Weyerhasier representative McDonald
defended the company’s record at the mill,
arguing that local management has
“always been environmentally conscious”
and led in introducing secondary treat-
ment for pulp effluent.

But it was not until the release of the
federal study last year that the company
took steps to lower its dioxin and furan
outflow levels.

McDonald also outlined the company’s
plans to change some of the processes at
the mill to reduce the use of chlorine, and
introduce oxygen bleaching in its wood
chip processing line, resulting in a reduc-
tion in effluent discharge into the river
from the current 46 tonnes daily to 27
tonnes daily by 1993. The volume of toxic
organo-chlorine compounds will be re-
duced to 1.3 kilograms per ton of pulp,
just below the government’s standard for
1994, he said.

But the PPWC, which represents
workers at Kamloops Pulp, has called on
the company to introduce the use of oxy-
gen on both its wood chip and sawdust
processing lines, thus eliminating com-
pletely the use of chlorine gas. Although
chlorine dioxide would continue to be
used in the final bleaching, the discharge
of organo-chlorine compounds would be
reduced by a further 30 per cent over the
company’s proposals.

“We are recommending the system ...
which will completely eliminate the use of
chlorine gas ...,” the union stated in a
leaflet distributed at the meeting. “This
would be a major step towards replacing

TRIBUNE PHOTO — BILL CAMPBELL

.chlorine dioxide with safer bleaching

chemicals, such as ozone and peroxide,
which would occur in the late 1990s.”
The union also noted that the new efflu-
ent standard set by the federal government
for 1990 will probably prove to be too
high. And since many mills are currently
planning to expand and even double their
pulp production, it warned, even if those
pulp mills meet the standard, the total
discharge will still equal current levels
unless additional measures-are taken.
According to Dr. Servizi, studies con-
ducted so far-have not indicated any

KAMLOOPS FORUM ... company told air ‘smells like a public toilet.’’

serious harmful effects of pulp mill pollu-
tion on salmon which travel up the Fraser
and Thompson rivers to spawn. But the
effects could take years to show up and the
ability of a river to accept industrial wastes
“must be considered finite,” he warned.

O’Brien also emphasized the need for
immediate action, pointing to the Euro-
pean pulp industry which has already vir-
tually eliminated chlorine bleaching.

“How to stop? They will stop using
chlorine,” she said. “It’s simply the pulp
and paper industry changing its deadly
habits.”

Commission set to go despite narrow mandate

By GARY SWANN
Established in E

90 million cubic meters cut despite an
allowable annual harvest of 75 million cubic

meet pollution requirements — but they
should at the same time be required to pro-

including legislative requirements for local
employment based on the amount of wood

June 1989 by then
forest minister Dave
Parker, to.. deflect
widespread public
demands for a full

harvested, as well as a system of regionally
elected forest boards, similar to school boards,
set up to administer the forest industry.

It also expresses agreement with the
demand of the B.C. Federation of Labour

vide long term employment for community
stability.

While the Forest Resources Commission
process falls short of the needed full royal
commission, it should be seen as one more

meters — and we need an inquiry into the
lack of investment by the forest companies
in intensive forest management and silvicul-
ture. But those issues will be outside the
commission’s scope. So too will a number

royal _ commission of other issues, including the excessive | weapon in the struggle to achieve demo- _ for the public ownership of one large inte-
_ into the forest in- reliance on exports of raw logs and semi- _ cratic control in the forest industry. Itisa grated forest company to lead the way to
| dustry, the B.C.: processed forest products and the failure of | continuation of the forest minister’s sustainable forest management and value

Forest Resources the industry to develop employment-  province-wide hearings last spring at which added manufacturing.

Commission (FRC) generating value-added forest products over 200 organizations demanded a royal Changes in tenure and democratic con-

seems finally set manufacturing on a large scale. commission. It also follows the State ofthe trol should be accomplished with a new

‘(after resignation of SWANN
its first chair) to begin its work. Written
submissions, necessary for future presenta-
tions to the FRC, are due March 16.

Limited in its mandate, the commission
has been given four specific tasks:

@ To recommend ways B.C. forest lands
may be managed to protect and enhance
differing values;

@ To review the effectiveness of the Tree
Farm Licences as a form of tenure;

e@ To improve public participation in
forest planning and, management;

@ To review and recommend ways to
improve forest harvesting practices, focuss-
ing on clear-cutting and associated practices

and their impact.

Important as those topics are, the scope
of the commission fails to address the broad
range of issues currently facing the forest
industry. Issues such as the domination of
the B.C. forest industry by four intercon-
nected transnational corporations and the

loss of 2,000 jobs per year over the past
_decade will not be examined.

We need an up-to-date forest inventory,

| we need to examine the current overcut —

Islands conference last fall when some 800
people challenged current forest policies
and practices. Trade unions, Native organi-
zations, environmental groups and members
of the public should participate in the FRC
process to show their concern over the crisis
in the forest industry.

The B.C. provincial committee of the
Communist Party of Canada has submitted
its draft forest policy to the FRC, and copies
of the draft policy are available on request
at the CP office.

In brief, the policy places the blame for
the deepening crisis on transnational con-
trol of B.C.’s forest industry. It calls for
radical changes to the character of the
industry, to shift from current practice of
timber extracting and semi-raw material
exporting to an industry which is environ-
mentally sound, sustainable, and based on
growing timber and utilizing the wood for
finished product manufacturing.

To accomplish the changes will require
measures to break the current transnational
control over the industry. The brief suggests
a variety of forest tenures and measures to
improve democratic control of the resource,

It is clear that the B.C. Forest Resources
Commission, because of the provincial
government-imposed mandate, will not be
able to address the major problems facing
the forest industry. The government is
attempting piecemeal solutions as one con-
troversy after another flares up, instead of
an overall comprehensive solution.

Land use conflicts such as those in the
Carmanah, the Stein and the Chilcotin are
handled on a watershed by watershed basis
—in spite of the fact that the report, Wilder-
ness and Forestry: Assessing the Cost of
Comprehensive Wilderness Protection in
British Columbia (from Simon Fraser Uni-
versity), indicates that the economic and
employment impact of wilderness preserva-
tion could be met by improved silviculture,
timber utilization and wood processing.

MacMillan-Bloedel’s threatened closure
of its Alberni kraft mill and its threat to cut
200 jobs due if it is compelled to meet new
environmental standards in effluent levels
is another example where the lack of a
comprehensive solution can lead to negative
consequences for workers and forest indus-
try dependent communities. Mills must

Forest Practices Act, the brief says. The act
should ensure that forest practices are sus-
tainable, that they maintain ecological and
genetic diversity, prohibit soil erosion, and
maintain jobs and healthy long term local
economies.

It emphasizes that bringing about the
needed changes in the forest industry will
require a determined political campaign —
a campaign which puts forest industry
issues front and centre on the political
agenda leading to, and beyond the coming
provincial election.

The B.C. Forest Resources Commission
process can be part of that campaign. It can
help ensure that forestry issues are a high
priority with a new government. We urge all
organizations and individuals concerned
about the future of our forest industry and
our province to submit their views to the
FRC before its March 16 deadline.

We must change the current direction of
the forest industry. To allow it to continue
on its present course will leave B.C. envir-
onmentally and economically destitute.

Gary Swann is chair of the Communist .
Party’s environmental committee.

Pacific Tribune, March 12, 1990 « 3