Category Archives: Environmental News

Recently, the most common question ForestTalk is asked is, “Whatever happened to that Boreal Forest Agreement?”, and “Have you heard anything about that Boreal Forest Agreement lately?”

To refresh our memories, the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement was signed 2 years ago.  21 forest companies, all members of the Forest Products Association of Canada, and 9 environmental organizations signed the agreement.  Through the agreement, the forest companies committed to the highest environmental standards of forest management and conservation, while environmental organizations commit to global recognition and support for the forest companies efforts.

Last year, in April 2011, the signatories of the agreement unveiled a Boreal Business Forum that would be a roundtable for the participants of the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, as well as leading corporations and investors that have a strong interest in conserving the boreal forest.

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Catalyst Paper has pushed the meetings of its secured and unsecured creditors back another 5 days to May 23.

The creditors are to meet to discuss the plan of arrangement under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act.

“Our discussions are continuing towards the possibility of amending the current plan of arrangement which would better enable Catalyst to emerge from creditor protection on a stronger financial footing, said Kevin J. Clarke, President and Chief Executive Officer. “The additional time is intended to permit these discussions to be successfully completed.”

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CBC News is reporting that Northern Pulp has been ordered by the Nova Scotia government to fix its air pollution equipment and that their power boiler stack hasn’t had an operating scrubber for the last 6 years.

A new operating permit last year imposed dozens of conditions on Northern Pulp, and most of them have been met, except for a January deadline to clean up the emissions from the power boiler.

Sterling Belliveau, Nova Scotia’s environment minister, said it was a long-standing problem. “Previous governments had the opportunity to deal with this issue. They didn’t; we are,” he said.

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Ball Packaging, former owner of Marathon‘s pulp and paper mill, Ontario, and the federal government, will be paying to clean-up Lake Superior’s Peninsula Harbour near Marathon, Ontario this spring.

The clean-up will improve water quality and help ensure the health of the harbour’s natural habitat by capping leftover waste from past polluters. This is the last step in the plan to restore the harbour to a safe, healthy state.

“This is good news for Marathon, and good news for the Great Lakes. The funding Ontario has secured from the former mill owner, together with our own funding, and our collaboration with the federal government is going to help us restore the health of this ecosystem.”

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The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is welcoming Resolute Forest Products (AbitibiBowater) as the the newest member of its prestigious Climate Savers program.

The WWF describes Resolute Forest Products as an “organization committed to sustainability leadership”.

As part of their commitment to this partnership, Resolute Forest Products has pledged to reduce their absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 65% by 2015 below 2000 levels.

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Once again, dangerous chemicals have been left behind in a closed paper mill with no power, no heat, and with winter approaching.

This time it is the Cascades/Thunder Bay Fine Papers/Superior Fine Papers mill in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

History of the Mill

The paper mill is 90 years old and sits on the shore of Lake Superior in Thunder Bay.

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Back in September we learned that the Ontario Ministry of Environment, former mill co-owner Tembec, and other unnamed “parties” reached a tentative settlement regarding the environmental cleanup of the Marathon Pulp mill site.

Ontario’s Environmental Review Tribunal has now ruled in favour of that tentative agreement that will see a multi-party approach to the cleanup.

The mill was owned and operated from 1945 until 2009 by a series of owners. Marathon Pulp Inc. was the most recent owner, and went into bankruptcy in 2009.

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Northern Pulp will wrap up its scheduled maintenance shutdown on Monday.

Starting on October 16, the mill has been busy working on three major Green Transformation projects during this shutdown:

• A boiler upgrade that will reduce oil use by 2.5 million litres per year
• A recovery cycle project that will reduce the amount of chemical used in the pulp process
• An odour reduction project that will cut the mill’s odour emissions by 70%

These projects are seeing an average of over 600 contractors, 145 term employees, and over 200 Northern Pulp employees onsite every day during the shutdown.

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For two years there has been an ongoing dispute as to who is responsible for the environmental clean-up at the dormant pulp mill in Marathon, Ontario.

The Chronicle Journal is reporting that the Ontario Ministry of Environment, former mill co-owner Tembec, and other unnamed “parties” reached a tentative settlement on Friday, but no details have been made public.

The tentative deal may be approved by the province’s Environmental Review Tribunal on October 6, in order to avoid a full hearing.

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Red Rock Mill Inc., and its president Robert Van Patten, have been hit with hefty fines by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.

The course case against the mill and Van Patten wrapped up today.

Last October, 9 charges were laid under the Environmental Protection Act.

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