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Push for mill baseline study echoing in forum |
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Sep 28 2005
By Peter Rusland
News Leader
Demands for far more study of health risks from Crofton pulp mill
pollutants are slated for debate at October's Community Advisory Forum
meeting, chair Jon Lefebure indicates.
Recommendations for a sweeping baseline probe of the mill's airborne
toxins, coupled with new air-dispersion modeling, surfaced during the
CAF's Sept. 13 meeting at the Crofton Community Centre.
That's when a forum sub-committee reported what member Patti Bauer
calls a "fundamental disconnect" between results from the NorskeCanada
mill's 2004 study and a peer review commissioned by the Crofton Airshed
Citizens' Group.
"People need time to read over recommendations then be ready to say if
they support them or not," Lefebure said of the mill's study by the
Jacques Whitford firm.
Debate on Oct. 18 will also focus on who would pay for the baseline study on human health-risk assessment.
"I recommended we decide first if it's (another baseline) a good idea,
then we'd have to move the consideration to who we request to pay for
it.
"It's one step at a time."
The mill funded Whitford's study titled a baseline study of air-quality and human risk assessment from mill air emissions.
However, Airshed scientists poked holes in Whitford's study, saying it fell short of risk assessment principals.
"I'll be very interested in the debate at the next meeting," Lefebure said of the CAF's next huddle.
"It's great having more information but there are costs and could that money be put to better use?"
The October meeting will also involve a presentation about airshed planning by the environment ministry's Warren McCormick.
The CAF - comprising a range of local residents - also awaits the
findings of Vancouver Island Health Authority's Dr. Fred Rockwell
concerning validity of Whitford's risk assessments.
"Rockwell has passed it along to an environmental specialist in Victoria," Lefebure said.
The CAF's recent meeting also covered use of a malfunctioning air-quality measuring unit during Whitford's study, Lefebure said.
"The anemometer wasn't functioning properly over periods of one year in 2004 so the results didn't make sense," he said.
The next public meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 18 in the Crofton Community Centre.
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