Campbell River Mirror
Mar 03 2006
Quadra Islanders will soon know more about what effect the Catalyst paper mill is having on air quality.
The mill is paying to install an air quality monitoring station in the
Cape Mudge Band's village on Quadra Island. The station will be
installed by April 15, said James Lethbridge, the mill's environmental
officer, at a Feb. 22 meeting of the Elk Falls Community Advisory Forum.
Catalyst has already paid to install air quality monitoring stations in
the area, including at the Quadra Island lighthouse, on Dogwood Street
and at the Tyee Spit. The new station will be installed partly because
of the influence of the community advisory forum, said forum chair and
Rivercorp general manager Patrick Marshall.
"That's a product of this process," he said.
The station also comes after public and legal pressure on the mill.
Last fall, lawyers representing the Cape Mudge Indian Band went public
with a report suggesting Catalyst's paper mill might have links with
the health of band members. The report refers to statistics showing a
cancer rate significantly higher among Quadra Island band members than
among Campbell River Indian Band members across the water.
"The Cape Mudge Village-is already profoundly and negatively affected
by the airborne emissions from the NorskeCanada Elk Falls pulp mill.
Additional contamination from the burning of coal would create further
damage to the health, safety and enjoyment of life of this aboriginal
community," says the letter from the band's lawyers to the provincial
government.
The letter said Catalyst (formerly NorskeCanada) had repeatedly ignored
requests to install an air quality monitoring station at the Cape Mudge
Village.
Last year band representatives said they believe the difference in the
cancer rate could be because their village is directly in the path of
the emissions coming from the Elk Falls mill. They were concerned
emissions would have an even more detrimental effect on the health of
band members if Catalyst Paper's Elk Falls mill was allowed to continue
to burn coal as a supplementary fuel in its main power boiler, which
was approved permanently at the end of October by the provincial
Ministry of Environment.
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