Mill following rules
A leadership candidate for Nova Scotia’s Progressive Conservatives says he believes the provincial Environment Department made a judgment call that has failed to instil public confidence in its environmental assessment process for a proposed effluent treatment plan for the Northern Pulp mill.
Tim Houston made the comment while questioning deputy environment minister Frances Martin, who appeared Wednesday before the legislature’s public accounts committee.
Houston, whose Pictou East riding neighbours the pulp mill, equated the decision to go with a Class 1 assessment with a similar decision for the Alton Gas natural gas storage project near Stewiake, which has been through the courts and has been subject to protests from environmentalists and local Mi’kmaq bands.
“Alton gas — 12 years after they did everything the department asked them to do — they haven’t started,’’ said Houston. “I’m worried the department is walking Northern Pulp down the same fate as Alton Gas.’’
Under provincial legislation, Northern Pulp has until 2020 to replace its current effluent treatment plant in Boat Harbour near Pictou — a deadline the company has said will be tight to meet.
The mill, which is across the Northumberland Strait from eastern Prince Edward Island, announced plans for a new treatment plant in December and is to submit an environmental assessment to Nova Scotia’s Environment Department sometime in July.
According to the company’s plan, waste would be treated at a new facility near the mill using a system that would meet all federal environmental standards for suspended solids and oxygen depletion.
The effluent would be carried by polyethylene pipe across Pictou Harbour and released through six dispersal pipes into the strait.
Martin told the committee she made the decision to go with a Class 1 environmental assessment last June 1 after Northern Pulp filed a project description with the department at the end of April.
She said it was clear to her the project required a Class 1 assessment instead of the more lengthy Class 2 under provincial regulations. Martin said Class 2 assessments are used in cases of larger projects, such as the building of a petro-chemical plant or pulp mill.
“It was very clear in looking in the documentation and the act and the regulations that it was a Class 1. It wasn’t the construction of a mill it was a modification to an existing mill.’’
But Houston persisted with his questioning, asking if Martin could confirm that a boardwalk project at the Northumberland Fisheries Museum required a Class 2 assessment.
Martin was unable to provide the answer to the committee, but the department later said in an email that “our environmental assessment branch isn’t aware of this project, as it has never been registered for an environmental assessment.’’
Martin said the Class 1 assessment would be rigorous and would give the public and experts ample opportunity to provide input before a final decision is made.
Local fishermen, Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq chiefs, and Prince Edward Island Premier Wade MacLauchlan are among those who have voiced concerns about Northern Pulp’s plan, saying it could have unintended consequences for fisheries in the area.