NEWS photo Mike Waketiel

ASBESTOS REMOVAL worker Rod Thomas, an employce of Westcor Insulation Ltd., tries on an oxygen mask aboard a floating asbestos-removal facility recently constructed at
Vancouver Shipyards for Seaspan International Ltd. The $350,000 facility wili be used to remove asbestos from Seaspan’s fleet of ships and barges and will be contracted out to

remove the hazardous material from other vessels along the coast. See story page 3.

WE

PERN PULP Inc. announced Friday that its Wood-
fibre pulp millin Piowe Sound fas reduced the amount of

dioxins in its effluent by 90 per cent from previous levels,
according to results from tests conducted by the Canadian
Pulo and Paper Association (CPPA) in March.

But the same tests show the ef-
fluent from Canfor’s Port Mellon
mill as having the highest dioxin
and furan tevels of all B.C."s pulp
mills.

By TIMOTHY RENS!

The survey was conducted from
January to March by CPPA and

the Pulp and Paper Research tn-
stitute of Canada in) conjunction
with the Council of Forest In-
dustries of British) Cohumbia as
part of a national pulp mill dioxin
testing program,

Funding for the survey was pro-
vided by the pulp industry, but
sampling controls were developed
in cooperation with Environment

-Canada.

According to the survey the level

7S FODD in Wood-
fibre's effluent was 7.7 parts per
quadrillion (ppq).

At Cantor's Port Metlon  roill,
2.3.7.8 TCDD levels were 400
ppq, over tour times higher than
the second highest total, which was
recorded at the Weyerhaeuser mill
in Kamloops.

Environment Canada wants
dioxin levels in’ pulp effuent
reduced to non-detectable levels.

Western's Sice-president) of
operations John Lukosevicius suid
the figure for Woedfibre compares
with dioxin levels of 140° ppq
mee>.red in Feburary 1988.

He said the total annual amount
of dioxin discharge from the mill
was 4.1 grams, roughly the weight
of a sugar cube, and is now down

See Environmentaiists
Page 2