The city of Vancouver is facing a waste management crunch. One of its main landfills is expected to be full at the end of next year. As preparation, Vancouver is looking at 8 proposals right now to handle the bulk of the city's solid waste for the future.

One of the proposals involves the old pulp mill in Gold River.

Covanta Energy and Green Island Energy are proposing to convert Gold River's long closed pulp mill into a garbage incinerator.

The proposal would see 700,000 metric tonnes of Metro Vancouver's garbage each year taken to Vancouver Island by barge, burn it and convert it into 90 megawatts clean, renewable power each year. The mill already has the power infrastructure required to send power back into the grid.

The plan would be a boom to the very economically depressed area on Vancouver Island. The incinerator project could created 130 permanent jobs, $30 million in annual economic activity and a $500-million boost during construction. Many people had to move away from Gold River when the mill closed.

In addition to providing economic opportunity, the project would significantly reduce Metro Vancouver's need to export waste to the United States, reduce the amount of waste landfilled, and reduce traffic congestion and emissions in the Lower Mainland.

The project has received the endorsement of the Village of Gold River, Strathcona Regional District, Vancouver Island Health Authority, and the Council of Chiefs of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nations.

There are some critics who think incinerators have the potential to emit dioxins, furans, and heavy metals like mercury.

Covanta Energy is an internationally recognized owner and operator of 52 renewable energy projects, 37 of which are energy from waste facilities. Critics points out that Covanta has been fined $68,278 for emissions violations in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

"We are in compliance 99.9 per cent of the time," said Brian Bahor, Covanta's vice-president of sustainability. "Our goal is 100, but it's undeniable that at some points in time you exceed your stack limit."

Covanta said the Gold River facility will be equipped with state-of-the-art emission control systems and will meet or exceed federal and provincial emissions standards.

About Gold River

Gold River first starting appearing on maps in the 1870's. The area was the traditional territory of the Mowachaht and Muchalaht peoples. Chinese miners were attracted to the area for its promise of gold.

In the 1960's the Tahsis company began logging in the area and selected the flat delta at the mouth of the river as the site for a kraft mill because of its deep-sea access too oceangoing freighters. The only problem is that area was already used for the site of the community.

In 1965 the town was relocated to a site 8 miles from the mill. The town was Canada's first all-electric town, and the first in Canada with underground wiring. The mill opened in 1965 as a 750 ton-a-day bleached kraft pulp-mill.

In 1984, Canadian International Paper Company (CIP) acquired full ownership of the mill from the Tahsis Company. A paper manufacturing component was added to the mill, thus creating a short-term building boom and increasing employment. However, newsprint prices soon collapsed amid a glut of new supply, the cost of wood chips increased, and high interest rates proved so crippling that in 1993 paper production shut down. The mill continued to lose money.

Over the years the company name of the mill changed as CIP was sold to Canadian Pacific Forest Products in 1989, which later became Avenor Inc. in 1994.

In 1998, Bowater took ownership of the mill when it acquired Avenor. In August of 1998, Bowater ceased operations at the mill, saying the mill was not strategic to its plans. The mill had no fibre agreement tied to it and was plagued by high production costs. Bowater closed the mill permanently in February 1999.

When the mill closed 382 people lost their jobs. The town, being a company town, derived 82% of its taxation revenue directly from the mill. As many of Gold River's working families moved away, many of the houses in the town were sold at auction-- some to Europeans. Since then Gold River has reinvented itself as a west-coast tourism hub. Affordable housing, a friendly small town atmosphere, excellent civic amenities and a paved all weather road connecting it to the more populated eastern coast of Vancouver Island have helped fuel a rebirth of the community.

Sources:
Companies have big plans for Metro's garbage - One proposal would burn waste in a long-closed pulp mill in Gold River to generate electrical power (Vancouver Sun)
Gold River (GoldRiver.ca)
History of Gold River (GoldRiverMyHome.BC.ca)
Covanta Energy Releases Economic Study of Proposed Gold River Energy-From-Waste Facility - Proposed Facility Would Generate More Than $500 Million in Economic Activity (Covanta Press Release)
Bowater shuts Gold River mill for good (Pulp & Paper)