CLEAN ENVIRONMENT COMMISSION ASKED TO REVIEW LOUISIANA PACIFIC'S LICENCE CHANGE REQUEST
Sounds like protests and expressions of concern do work, once in a while!
But please note the release, below, fails to mention that the government, without consultation, gave the company permission in early January to take its pollution controls offline until June.
l.p.
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Manitoba News Release
............................................................
March 16, 2009
The province is requesting the Clean Environment Commission (CEC) to review Louisiana Pacific's request for permanent alterations to its Swan Valley oriented strand board plant's Environment Act licence.
"I have directed the Clean Environment Commission to review Louisiana Pacific's request," Conservation Minister Stan Struthers said. "The CEC will thoroughly examine the plant's proposal and will return with a recommendation on the request."
Louisiana Pacific Swan River filed a request on Jan. 19 that its licence be altered to allow for the decommissioning of its regenerative thermal oxidizers (RTOs) and for the increase of certain emissions from the plant. Their proposal has been under review by Manitoba's director of environmental assessment and licensing, and the period for public comments ended on Friday, March 13.
The CEC reviewed the Louisiana Pacific (LP) plant when it was first proposed in 1994. Included in the report was a recommendation that the company operate pollution control equipment including RTOs. LP's application states that upgrades have reduced emission levels since the plant was first constructed.
- 30 -
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The following is Larry's article, published in the online magazine, "OnEarth."
========
U.S. Logging Giant Scraps Pollution Controls in Manitoba
by Larry Powell March 10, 2009
In early January, the Government of Manitoba quietly agreed to let the Louisiana Pacific Corporation (LP), with extensive forestry operations in North America, shut down pollution control equipment at one of its wood products plants in the west-central part of the province.
As a result, increased emissions such as benzene, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide, have apparently been escaping into the air since January at its “oriented strand board” (OSB) plant near Minitonas in the SwanValley. (OSB is a building product similar to plywood made mostly from poplar tree fiber.)
Now, LP wants to keep that equipment shut down, permanently. Much to the chagrin of environmental groups, the Government is considering that request.
Ironically, it was the New Democratic Opposition Party, now the government, that insisted that the equipment, called “regenerative thermal oxidizers,”(RTOs) be installed when LP was first issued its Manitoba license back in the late 90’s. So did a government advisory body, the Clean Environment Commission. Environmentalists added their voices to the calls for controls.
Under the pressure, the government and company capitulated.
A Winnipeg-based environmental group, Boreal Forest Network says the RTOs cost the company about $10 million dollars and now need to be replaced. It suggests this, plus the cost of operating them are the real reasons behind the company’s move.
The Netowork admits, the housing slump in the “States has hit sales of OSB. But the company decision shouldn’t come at the expense of the health of those living near the plant. Susanne McRae of the Network notes that the housing crisis is worse in the US than Canada, yet all OSB plants in the ‘States have pollution controls. So, she reasons, Canada deserves the same treatment.
LP has had a bit of a chequered past in terms of its environmental record in the United States. In the 1990’s the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), imposed what, at the time, was its largest fine ever on the company. It ordered LP to pay more than $11 million for falsely reporting how much pollution its OSB plants there were emitting.
It was also ordered to outfit those plants with the best pollution abatement technology available.
But that isn’t the end of the story.
Less than three years ago, the EPA cited Louisiana Pacific again for allegedly exceeding emission limits for smoke, ash and dust from one of its OSB plants in Michigan. As Bharat Mathur of the EPA put it at the time, “Inhaling high concentrations of particulates can affect children, the elderly and people with heart and lung conditions.”
A long-time critic of LP operations, Dan Soprovich of Swan River, is quoted as saying, “This is a cost-driven decision that will compromise human health and the environment as a means to support an American company that has taken millions of dollars out of this province.”
Soprovich was a government biologist when LP was originally granted its license. He was fired after opposing the project, saying LP had given impossibly optimistic forecasts about how sustainable the forest would be in the harvest area.
Manitoba’s Assistant Deputy Minister of Conservation, Ryan Coulter, has so far been the only government official to comment.
He told CBC Radio recently that monitoring at the site has shown that pollutants do not seem to have exceeded allowable limits, so far. Coulter left open the possibility of a public consultation process on the issue and even a formal hearing by the Clean Environment Commission before a final decision is made.
In any case, the temporary permit already issued seems to guarantee the company it can keep its RTOs offine until June.
For its part, Louisiana Pacific says keeping the pollution controls in place is expensive. And it adds, shutting them down would mean the natural gas which runs them would no longer be required. This, in turn, would avoid the production of a lot of grenhouse gasses.
The company denies that decommissioning will result in any dangerous increase in toxic emissions.
======
Comments
Request to remain anonymus wrote on March 22, 2009, 12:08PM :
As far as I understand, the rate payers of the communities around the LP plant in Minnitonas, MB (Swan River, etc.) had to pay the brunt of getting the plant supplied with natural gas in the first place. It was not supplied by Manitoba Hydro at the time. The estimate of how many residents would actually choose to use natural gas once the lines were installed were highly inflated. The company got a huge break and the cost was passed on to the local communities....
Also, the suggestion that the process leading to the temporary decommissioning of the RTOs was not as open as the company suggests it was. Many folks that were involved in the original struggle to ensure the installation of adequate pollution abatement equipment did not know that LP was even applying for a decommissioning. LP was definitely flying under the wire as local environmental champions still living and working in the community were caught completely unaware.
Finally, LP has not been the best(!) corporate citizen in the US, so it is right that people are skeptical about their assurances. It is also terrible that Canada and its provinces do not hold US-based companies to at least the standards of their "home" nations--in this case the US. If we in Canada do not demand more, just think of the precedent this sets for LP's operations in developing nations!!!
Also, I am not a fan of corporate bail outs. However, when reducing costs by eliminating pollution abatement equipment becomes a bone of contention, I think the provincial and federal governments should look aggressively at what can be done so that local jobs aren't lost and the health of the workers and communities is not put at risk. It should not be health or jobs--especially when the company and its shareholders have been making lots of money over the years by cutting and/or processing local timber--much of it being a publicly-owned resource!
But please note the release, below, fails to mention that the government, without consultation, gave the company permission in early January to take its pollution controls offline until June.
l.p.
=======
Manitoba News Release
............................................................
March 16, 2009
The province is requesting the Clean Environment Commission (CEC) to review Louisiana Pacific's request for permanent alterations to its Swan Valley oriented strand board plant's Environment Act licence.
"I have directed the Clean Environment Commission to review Louisiana Pacific's request," Conservation Minister Stan Struthers said. "The CEC will thoroughly examine the plant's proposal and will return with a recommendation on the request."
Louisiana Pacific Swan River filed a request on Jan. 19 that its licence be altered to allow for the decommissioning of its regenerative thermal oxidizers (RTOs) and for the increase of certain emissions from the plant. Their proposal has been under review by Manitoba's director of environmental assessment and licensing, and the period for public comments ended on Friday, March 13.
The CEC reviewed the Louisiana Pacific (LP) plant when it was first proposed in 1994. Included in the report was a recommendation that the company operate pollution control equipment including RTOs. LP's application states that upgrades have reduced emission levels since the plant was first constructed.
- 30 -
========
The following is Larry's article, published in the online magazine, "OnEarth."
========
U.S. Logging Giant Scraps Pollution Controls in Manitoba
by Larry Powell March 10, 2009
In early January, the Government of Manitoba quietly agreed to let the Louisiana Pacific Corporation (LP), with extensive forestry operations in North America, shut down pollution control equipment at one of its wood products plants in the west-central part of the province.
As a result, increased emissions such as benzene, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide, have apparently been escaping into the air since January at its “oriented strand board” (OSB) plant near Minitonas in the SwanValley. (OSB is a building product similar to plywood made mostly from poplar tree fiber.)
Now, LP wants to keep that equipment shut down, permanently. Much to the chagrin of environmental groups, the Government is considering that request.
Ironically, it was the New Democratic Opposition Party, now the government, that insisted that the equipment, called “regenerative thermal oxidizers,”(RTOs) be installed when LP was first issued its Manitoba license back in the late 90’s. So did a government advisory body, the Clean Environment Commission. Environmentalists added their voices to the calls for controls.
Under the pressure, the government and company capitulated.
A Winnipeg-based environmental group, Boreal Forest Network says the RTOs cost the company about $10 million dollars and now need to be replaced. It suggests this, plus the cost of operating them are the real reasons behind the company’s move.
The Netowork admits, the housing slump in the “States has hit sales of OSB. But the company decision shouldn’t come at the expense of the health of those living near the plant. Susanne McRae of the Network notes that the housing crisis is worse in the US than Canada, yet all OSB plants in the ‘States have pollution controls. So, she reasons, Canada deserves the same treatment.
LP has had a bit of a chequered past in terms of its environmental record in the United States. In the 1990’s the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), imposed what, at the time, was its largest fine ever on the company. It ordered LP to pay more than $11 million for falsely reporting how much pollution its OSB plants there were emitting.
It was also ordered to outfit those plants with the best pollution abatement technology available.
But that isn’t the end of the story.
Less than three years ago, the EPA cited Louisiana Pacific again for allegedly exceeding emission limits for smoke, ash and dust from one of its OSB plants in Michigan. As Bharat Mathur of the EPA put it at the time, “Inhaling high concentrations of particulates can affect children, the elderly and people with heart and lung conditions.”
A long-time critic of LP operations, Dan Soprovich of Swan River, is quoted as saying, “This is a cost-driven decision that will compromise human health and the environment as a means to support an American company that has taken millions of dollars out of this province.”
Soprovich was a government biologist when LP was originally granted its license. He was fired after opposing the project, saying LP had given impossibly optimistic forecasts about how sustainable the forest would be in the harvest area.
Manitoba’s Assistant Deputy Minister of Conservation, Ryan Coulter, has so far been the only government official to comment.
He told CBC Radio recently that monitoring at the site has shown that pollutants do not seem to have exceeded allowable limits, so far. Coulter left open the possibility of a public consultation process on the issue and even a formal hearing by the Clean Environment Commission before a final decision is made.
In any case, the temporary permit already issued seems to guarantee the company it can keep its RTOs offine until June.
For its part, Louisiana Pacific says keeping the pollution controls in place is expensive. And it adds, shutting them down would mean the natural gas which runs them would no longer be required. This, in turn, would avoid the production of a lot of grenhouse gasses.
The company denies that decommissioning will result in any dangerous increase in toxic emissions.
======
Comments
Request to remain anonymus wrote on March 22, 2009, 12:08PM :
As far as I understand, the rate payers of the communities around the LP plant in Minnitonas, MB (Swan River, etc.) had to pay the brunt of getting the plant supplied with natural gas in the first place. It was not supplied by Manitoba Hydro at the time. The estimate of how many residents would actually choose to use natural gas once the lines were installed were highly inflated. The company got a huge break and the cost was passed on to the local communities....
Also, the suggestion that the process leading to the temporary decommissioning of the RTOs was not as open as the company suggests it was. Many folks that were involved in the original struggle to ensure the installation of adequate pollution abatement equipment did not know that LP was even applying for a decommissioning. LP was definitely flying under the wire as local environmental champions still living and working in the community were caught completely unaware.
Finally, LP has not been the best(!) corporate citizen in the US, so it is right that people are skeptical about their assurances. It is also terrible that Canada and its provinces do not hold US-based companies to at least the standards of their "home" nations--in this case the US. If we in Canada do not demand more, just think of the precedent this sets for LP's operations in developing nations!!!
Also, I am not a fan of corporate bail outs. However, when reducing costs by eliminating pollution abatement equipment becomes a bone of contention, I think the provincial and federal governments should look aggressively at what can be done so that local jobs aren't lost and the health of the workers and communities is not put at risk. It should not be health or jobs--especially when the company and its shareholders have been making lots of money over the years by cutting and/or processing local timber--much of it being a publicly-owned resource!
Comments