Thrust...

Alberta-Pacific press release, 7 December 1989
 

EDMONTON, December 7: A presentation by a scientist representing the government of the North West Territories to the Alberta-Pacific Environmental Impact Review Board was attacked today as being "highly unprofessional and lacking in integrity" by two of Alberta-Pacific's scientific specialists.

"The whole premise of the North West Territories presentation to the Review Board was based on gross misinformation and, coming from someone who would appear to have credentials, can only have been done to scare people," said Mike Holloran, a specialist in waste water load allocations, and a consultant to Alberta-Pacific.

He was supported by Dr Bob Willes, former Chairman of the Expert Committee on Dioxins, reporting to the federal Ministers of Health & Welfare and Environment.

"To compare the discharges into the Athabasca River with the estimated total loadings of the pesticide Mirex from the Niagara River and Love Canal toxic dump site is, to say the very least, irresponsible," said Willes.

Speaking to the Board at a technical session on Monday, Dr Douglas Hallett, representing the NWT, said that the Alberta-Pacific mill will have an annual discharge of 22 grams per year of dioxins-about the equivalent of two sugar cubes.

"Immediately after Dr Hallett's presentation we pointed out his gross mathematical error and offered him the opportunity to retract. He refused to acknowledge the gross error in his miscalculations, which forces us to feel that his behaviour was negligent," said Holloran.

"His entire presentation was based on calculations of a loading of dioxins and furans of between 30 and 90 milligrams per day, based on unreferenced sediment data collected somewhere in Sweden, according to his presentation (Annex 3, page 4). He totally ignored data presented by Alberta-Pacific, which had been substantiated by Environment Canada, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada at previous Review Board Hearings."

The Alberta-Pacific data results in a conservative estimated loading of dioxins and furans of 0.23 milligrams per day. This means the NWT submission overestimated the discharge from the mill by at least a factor of from 126 to 379 times.

"When this mill will be below the Environment Canada standards of producing non-detectable levels of dioxins at a measurement level of 10 parts per quadrillion, and these comments are made, it leads one to wonder if people will go to any lengths to try to stop this mill going into production," said Willes.

Following representations to the Review Board Panel on the errors in the NWT presentation Gerry Fenner, Alberta-Pacific Vice President told a news conference he has instructed legal counsel to investigate possible actions against the NWT government for what might be false and malicious representations.