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SINCE 1969

1987 News 985-2131 Chaysified 986-6222

A DEVELOPMENT permit clearing the way for a two-
“phase, $45 million Erco Industries sodium chlorate plant
expansion is up for consideration by North Vancouver

NV District Council consid

District Council at a special meeting March 2,

North Vancouver District Mayor
Marilyn Baker called for a staff
report Monday night to investigate
the enforceability of limiting plant
production to 1986 levels if new
cell line technology has not com-
pletely replaced the existing, haz-
ardous sludge producing graphite
cell technology by Dec. 31, 1991.

A handful of residents living
near the plant spoke out against
the proposed expansion at a public
meeting prior to Monday night’s
proposal.

“T live pretty close to the plant,
and we've had some nights where
you couldn't breathe from the

MICHAEL BECKER

News Reporter

smell of it,’ said Marcel Dupuis, a
32-year Maplewood area resident.

James Weber said he was born
and raised in Ocean Falls, ‘I’m a
resident of the North Shore and
planet Earth and I’m sick and tired
of people dumping their garbage
into the environment.”'

But Erco plant manager Brian
Smyth said the plant has been an
exemplary corporate citizen for the
past 30 years and the expansion
and upgrade will make the facility

Distribution 986-1337 44 payes

YOUNG NORTE Shore News renders are geting a

chance to go to the Shrine Cireus — for tree! Look
for details about our circus coloring contest on page

26.

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Paws ere Mn aC Po

NEWS photo Mike Waketleld

BELIEVE IT or not it is stil! winter. These children were spotted on Mount Seymour ,
recently having the time of their lives sliding down slopes on a trusty. inner ‘tube.
Despite the rain in the low-lying areas of the North Shore, snow is still ample at the ski:

resorts,

cleaner and more competitive in
the long run. ‘*There’s a need for
the chemival industry and there’s a
need for jobs — the problem: is
that everybody wants the industry
somewhere else.”

Baker asked for a report on the
plant’s proposed plan for dealing
with the heavy-metal laden spent
graphite mud currently being pro-
duced and stored on site. Council
wants the development permit to
include a limitation that all on-site
storage of the hazardous graphite
mud cease at the close of 1991.

But according to Smyth, the
company’s legal counsel believes
the district cannot limit plant pro-
duction.

Although Erco's application has
targeted 1991 as the completion
date for phase two of the expan-

sion, the company has subsequent-
ly asked council for an extension
of phase-two completion to 1993.

“We'lldo our best to meet the
1991 deadline, but we'd like a little
more flexibility,”’ said Smyth.

Erco, the major suppiier of so-
dium chlorate to the pulp and
paper industry in the West, pres-
ently produces over 50 tonnes of
solid waste a year and according to
Smyth, is storing 100 to 140 :onnes
of the waste in steel tanks ai the
plant located in the Maplewood
area of the district.

Smyth said the plant expansion
will increase maximum annual so-
dium chlorate production to
76,000 tonnes, up from the current
54,000 tonnes. The new cell line
technology, he said, does not pro-
duce the graphite sludge containing

ers controversial chemical plant expansion

IDUSTRIAL DILEMMA

cadmium and chromium.

Smyth adeed that chlorine air
emissions are expected to decrease
80 per cent by 1991.

But the upgrade will mean an in-
itial 10 per cent increase in cooling
system effluent discharged into
Burrard Inlet, decreasing to three
per cent by 1991. Smyth said the
plant presently discharges 6,295
cubic metres of effluent per day
into the inlet.

Smyth said scrubbers have
minimized chlorine emissions to
below five parts per million, but
admitted the plant had exceeded
emission standards in the past.

Although district staff expressed
concerns regarding an increase in
off-site shipping of hazardous
goods, approval of the $15 million
phase one was recommended.

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