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AN ADVERTISEMENT in Sunday’s News outlining efforts
to contro! Port Mellon pulp mill emissions is a public rela-
tions smokescreen full of misleading information, according

toa West Vancouver resident.

Singer-songwriter Terry Jacks
said Monday the advertisement,
said for by Port Melon owners
Canadian Yorest Products (Can-
for), ‘tis a snow job. They should
be complying with government
regulations, permits and orders,
not running full-page ads and ar-
ranging public relations tea par-
ties.””

-In.addition to outlining zom-
pany expenditures used to upgrade
the 79-year-old mill, the Canfor
advertisement announced three
upcoming company public open
houses, two of which will be held
in West Vancouver, and presented
a clip-out questionnaire soliciting
opinion and input from area resi-
dents on the company’s efforts to
control the toxic emissions pro-
duced by the mill. -

According to the ad, Canfor,
which purchased the mill in 1951,
has invested $170 million to
upgrade Port Mellon’s equipment
and has spent $20 million to con-
trol mill pollution over the past
nine years. The investment, accor-
ding to the ad, has reduced the
mill’s odor-causing emissions of
Total Reduced Sulphur (TRS) by
80 per cent. .

But Jacks, who has collected a
petition with over 3,000 names
demanding the mill conform to
provincial pollution regulations,
said Canfor ‘‘is just not telling the
truth.”

He said the ad’s claim that par-
ticulate emissions (flyash) were not
a problem is wrong.

“They are an irritant problem,”’
Jacks said. ‘‘Suiphur dioxide
adheres to flyash and when it is
breathed into the lungs it turns in-
to sulphurous acid and damages
lung tissue.”’

Environment ministry records
show that the mill has been
granted permission to exceed air
pollution standards since 1978. In
December 1986, the mill was
granted special permission from
then-environment minister Stephen
Rogers to continue exceeding air
pollution standards until June 30,

Port Mellon mill manager Harry
Cargo said Tuesday his company
has done a good job thus far in
working to control the mill's air
emissions and will be investing a
further $2 million to reduce the
number of peak TRS production
periods that push the mill’s three
recovery boilers over permitted air
pollution levels.

“‘We don’t think the particulate
matter is a problem,”’ Cargo said.
“The number of people in West
Vancouver who use wood-burning
stoves poses a bigger problem (to
air quality) than anything from the
mill.””

He said the mill will be in full
compliance with provincial air
pollution standards by 1988.

West Vancouver resident Dr.
Paul Sugar, who has researched
the possible effects on area popu-
lations of such mill emissions as
hydrogen sulphide gas, said cur-
rent air monitoring procedures for
those emissions were inadequate.

The mill currently monitors all
reduced sulphur emissions frora
the miii but does not monitor the
sulphur dioxide produced by one
of its three recovery boilers.

Hydrogen sulphide, he said, is a
toxin similar to cyanide and affecis
the body’s ability to process ox-
ygen. He said the gas is an insidi-
ous poison whose side effects in-
cluded mild headaches and memory
disruption.

Though ministry of environment
records show the mill’s 1986 levels
of TRS, which is primarily
hydrogen sulphide, were at times
70 per cent over perinitted levels,
Cargo said the Port Mellon mill,
which operated 265 days last year,
complied with air pollution stan-
dards in 1] of 12 months in 1986.

Canfor’s West Vancouver open
House meetings on the Port Mellon
mill are scheduled to take place
April 22 at the Gleneagles Golf
Course and April 23 at the West
Vancouver YMCA. Both open
houses will run from 2 to 9 p.m.

| 20 reactions mixed

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PAGE 37

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stribution 986-1337 48 pages 25¢

job, says environmentalist

NEWS photo Stuart Davis

SUSAN PINKUS takes a break from riding at the North Shore-Equestrian Centre and gets acquainted \
with @ friend. The centre, at 130) Lillooet Road, attracts many horse-riding enthusiasts throughout the