In October, B.C. Premier John Horgan made a visit to the Rio Tinto Alcan smelter on the banks of the Douglas Channel in Kitimat.

He praised the facility for being “a great example of how companies can improve conditions for workers and reduce pollution all while improving their bottom line.”

What he didn’t mention was the ongoing battle at Rio Tinto Alcan over a provincial permit that allowed the company to increase sulphur dioxide pollution by more than 50 per cent, or the union representing 800 workers at the smelter that appealed that permit, saying the increase in pollution was a direct threat to their health.

Exposure to sulphur dioxide aggravates the respiratory systems of asthmatics and is known to negatively affect the respiratory systems of children and the elderly.

At the heart of the controversy is a decision by the B.C. Ministry of Environment in 2013, which allowed the smelter to increase its sulphur dioxide emissions into the Kitimat airshed during a $5 billion expansion project. The ministry approved the increase in emissions under an environmental monitoring plan that would measure, but not prevent, the impacts of the pollution on human health until 2019, when the plan would be revisited.

B.C. did not require the company to install scrubbers, commonly used in smelters to remove airborne pollutants from emissions, a decision that still bothers Sean O’Driscoll, president of the smelter’s union, Unifor local 2301.

“Having a monitoring program ongoing, with suitable human health mitigation plans required to be implemented at a later day, has folks feeling like they, their children and neighbours are being treated like guinea pigs,” O’Driscoll told DeSmog Canada.

ICYMI: Rio Tinto Alcan Polluting Kitimat Airshed to Save Money, Tribunal Hears

ICYMI: Rio Tinto Alcan Externalizing Air Pollution onto Kitimat Households, Says Expert Witness

The B.C. Environmental Appeal Board previously told the union it had no right to challenge the environmental effects monitoring plan. But the court of appeals has now overruled that finding, kicking the original appeal — first launched in 2014 — back into action.

“This [appeal] opens a path for Unifor to challenge the mitigation plan on the basis that it is insufficient to protect workers and their families from growing levels of sulphur dioxide,” Jason Gratl, lawyer for local 2301, told DeSmog Canada.

O’Driscoll said the company was essentially given permission to subject workers and the community to a health risk to minimize costs.

“Our full expectations of the new Horgan NDP government is that they take another look at this issue and put the health of communities first,” O’Driscoll told DeSmog Canada. “Industry and stringent environmental standards need not be mutually exclusive.”

Gratl said the appeal will address whether or not it was appropriate for the government to approve the pollution increase without a clear plan to protect human health.

Governments increasingly approve projects with the explicit plan to work out details after the fact, Gratl said, adding pipeline approvals that come with more than 100 conditions are a prime example.

“What happened with Rio Tinto Alcan is the government said ‘let’s start making aluminum and we’ll figure out the environmental and social issues later.’ And they keep trying to push these issues further down the road.”

BC Using #Kitimat Smelter Workers as ‘Guinea Pigs’ for Air Pollution Monitoring, Union Says https://t.co/CcjzYKZcOE #bcpoli

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) November 6, 2017

Experts-for-Hire at Heart of Rio Tinto Alcan Concerns

Chris Tollefson, lawyer with the Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation, brought a previous challenge against the Rio Tinto Alcan on behalf of two Kitimat teachers: Lis Stannus and Emily Towes.

In 2015 Tollefson and his co-counsels provided an Environmental Appeal Board tribunal with evidence of alleged regulatory capture.

Regulators and statutory decision-makers within the Ministry of Environment were inappropriately close with Rio Tinto Alcan and relied heavily on science and analysis provided by the company’s hired scientists, Tollefson argued.

Tollefson said this case gives rise to the problems of “professional reliance” — the practice of using proponent-hired experts rather than independent analysts during environmental assessments.

ICYMI: ‘This is B.C.’s Version of the Duffy Scandal’: Government Officials Refer to Rio Tinto Alcan as ‘Client’ in Work Journal

ICYMI: Tribunal Hears Regulatory Capture Behind B.C.’s Decision to Increase Rio Tinto Alcan Pollution in Kitimat Airshed

In August, the B.C. government ordered a review of the professional reliance system, which rose in popularity in B.C. under the tenure of the BC Liberals as cuts to the civil service were made.

Tollefson said the reopening of Unifor’s appeal will start a new discovery process that may provide crucial insight into what decisions and decision-makers played a role in the permits and adaptive management plan being approved.

“We’re concerned that the Ministry of Environment relied far too heavily on Rio Tinto Alcan’s experts, on Rio Tinto’s preferred approach and did not subject the environmental effects management plan to the kind of rigorous scrutiny that it deserved; and that it rushed its approval of that management plan in a way that compromised its scientific integrity,” Tollefson said.

‘We Feel Like An Experiment’

Tollefson also said the appeal provides new ground for his clients to relaunch their legal challenge.

Stannus said that is something she plans to pursue.

“Since this permit was approved, we have learned a lot more about the problems of professional reliance, a lot more about the health impacts of sulphur dioxide,” Stannus said.

Kitimat resident Lis Stannus poses for a photogaph with Premier John Horgan during his October visit to Kitimat. “I walked up to Horgan and I said, ‘I’m from Kitimat and I’m worried about sulphur dioxide pollution,’ ” Stannus recounted to DeSmog Canada. Photo: Province of B.C. via Flickr

“It’s a little shocking to me that this is allowed to proceed. We feel like an experiment and I don’t recall ever giving consent to this experiment.”

Stannus said her ears perk up whenever she hears the new government criticize the practice of professional reliance.

“But they never bring Rio Tinto Alcan up,” Stannus told DeSmog Canada. “They never mention the fact that the project’s studies were bought and paid for by Rio Tinto.”

Kitimat Residents Try to Raise Concerns with NDP Government

Stannus said she sought out the premier on his last visit to the area.

Stannus and a community organization she belongs to, the Kitimat-Terrace Clean Air Coalition, have sent three letters to B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman, expressing their fears that Rio Tinto Alcan’s permit to increase sulphur dioxide emissions is a threat to their health. The group has repeatedly asked for meetings with the minister, Stannus said.

“I asked [the Premier] why they won’t meet with us and he said it is because they have only been in power for 100 days,” she said.

ICYMI: Kitimat Residents ‘Muzzled’ From Speaking Out On Rio Tinto Alcan’s Plan to Increase Air Pollution

In a statement to DeSmog Canada, Minister Heyman said he can “empathize with those who have concerns about air quality in their community.”

“I want to assure everyone that we will restore public confidence in government’s ability to protect our water, land and air,” Heyman said.

He added the environmental effects monitoring plan is currently under appeal with the Environmental Appeal Board.

“As such it would be inappropriate for me to comment further.”

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The steady stream of trucks filled with contaminated waste that have been making their way to the small community of Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island for the last 10 months will come to a stop today after the B.C. Supreme Court ruled the province erred in granting a waste disposal permit for 460 Stebbings Road.   The B.C. Supreme Court ruled “a contaminated soil treatment facility is not a permitted use on the property” after finding the provincial Ministry of Environment granted a waste discharge permit to South Island Aggregates in August 2013 that violated local bylaws.   The court ordered an immediate injunction preventing South Island Aggregates from dumping more contaminated material.   “I’m just ecstatic,” Sonia Furstenau, elected representative of Shawnigan Lake with the Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD), told DeSmog Canada about the ruling.   “I’m overjoyed.”   In 2015 the CVRD filed a lawsuit against the permit, which granted the company permission to dump 5 million tonnes of contaminated soil in a local gravel quarry.

According to the permit, the waste could contain furans, dioxins, chlorinated hydrocarbons, glycols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, benzene, toluene, xylene and other materials known to cause cancer, brain damage and birth defects in humans.

The quarry is located approximately five kilometres uphill from Shawnigan Lake, a source of drinking water for 7,500 year-round residents. The population swells to 12,000 in the summer months. 

Residents of Shawnigan Lake aggressively opposed the project since it was first proposed in 2012, citing concerns over the potential contamination of drinking water.   “From the very beginning nobody thought the provincial government would approve this. It just seemed too crazy,” Fursteanau, a resident of Shawnigan Lake and organizer with the Save Shawnigan Water campaign, said.   She added today’s decision comes just over one year after the community lost its case with the B.C. Environmental Appeal Board (EAB).   “It’s ironic,” Furstenau mused, “I studied medieval history and it’s a year and a day today since the EAB decision and that was the period of punishment in the middle ages — you’d be exiled for a year and a day.”   “So our exile in Shawnigan is over.”

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The community of Shawnigan Lake is awaiting an additional decision from the B.C. Court of Appeal that seeks to overturn the Environmental Appeal Board ruling. In that case the CVRD and the Shawnigan Residents Association are arguing the permit approval process was corrupted due to a leaked profit sharing agreement between the company and the engineering firm hired to provide geotechnical analysis of the project.   “I’m hoping for another successful outcome,” Furstenau said.   “We are on the side of light and justice, on the side of truth and on the side of protecting drinking water, which all governments should protect.”

In an e-mailed statement the B.C. Ministry of Environment said "staff will need to review the decision to fully understand its impacts before we can provide further comment."*   Shawnigan Lake resident Georgia Collins said the Supreme Court’s decision has her “over the moon.”   “It’s literally the best day of my life,” she said over the phone. “I don’t know what to do with my self. I just went outside and screamed in the happiest way possible.”   Collins said the ruling is important because it upholds local bylaws and zoning restrictions over and above permits granted by provincial ministries.   “I have very little faith in the provincial government now,” Collins said. “There was such a failure of process”   Collins added she would still like to see the Ministry of Environment’s permit overturned by the B.C Court of Appeal.   “I think it needs to be shown that the process was faulty, that there was fraud and that the community was right in what it was fighting for.”   She added: “I know all kinds of appeals can be made, but right now I’m going to celebrate this.”   Andrew Weaver, leader of the B.C. Green Party and MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head, congratulated the community, saying the court decision “is a vindication of their concerns.”   "I want to recognize the hard work of Shawnigan Lake residents in coming together as a community and standing up for their rights in the face of government inaction.”

"I look forward to reviewing the ruling and working with local politicians and residents to ensure that we continue to move this issue forward in a way that protects the rights of the Shawnigan Lake community," Weaver said in a statement.   The B.C. Supreme Court did not order the company to remove contaminated soil already deposited at the site but indicated such matters will be handled by the Ministry of Environment and the Environmental Appeal Board.

*Updated to include comment from the Ministry of Environment.

Image: Protesters block trucks loaded with contaminated soil. Photo by Laura Colpitts.

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Leaders in Canada’s environmental community are expressing optimism about the appointment of lawyer Catherine McKenna as Minister of Environment and Climate Change at a swearing in ceremony in Ottawa Wednesday morning.

“Including climate change in the environment minister’s title signals how high a priority this issue is to our new federal government,” said Merran Smith, executive director of Clean Energy Canada.

As a lawyer, McKenna focused on international trade and competition and co-founded a charity focused on advancing human rights in the developing world.  She was also a legal adviser and negotiator for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in East Timor. A video on her website shows her biking around Ottawa with her three children.

Although her background isn’t heavily weighted to environment and climate change, Ed Whittingham, executive director of the Pembina Institute, said it’s a good appointment.

“I’m impressed with the NGO experience, which suggests a very different approach to working with environmental NGOs like Pembina,” Whittingham told DeSmog Canada. “It indicates a more engaging, communicative, collaborative approach, reading the tea leaves right now.”

McKenna pulled off an upset on Oct. 19, defeating popular NDP MP Paul Dewar to win her seat in Ottawa Centre. She will lead a Canadian delegation to Paris later this month for a critical United Nations meeting to negotiate a new agreement on cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

“I think she has just the right kind of experience,” said Louise Comeau, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada. “We’ve moved beyond the science and even the economic dimensions on climate change. This is now about the issues of justice and fairness and I think she’s well positioned to deal with that.”

Comeau is also pleased with the appointment of Stephane Dion as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Winnipeg South Centre MP Jim Carr as Minister of Natural Resources. Dion, Carr and McKenna will co-ordinate during next month’s climate negotiations.

“The minister responsible for Natural Resources Canada doesn’t have a vested interest in the oilsands or pipelines so we can expect a more open mind on transitioning to a clean energy system,” Comeau told DeSmog Canada. “I’m quite optimistic. This signals a significant attempt to move forward in a balanced way.”

The Liberals’ election platform was vague when it came to how to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, promising only to work with provinces to put a price on carbon and to end subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has vowed that Canada will do its part to prevent the catastrophic consequences of more than a two-degree rise in global temperatures.

The Liberals have also promised to restore robust environmental assessments and to review changes to the Fisheries Act. Nunavut MP Hunter Tootoo was named Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard during Wednesday’s swearing in ceremony.

Tootoo defeated Conservative MP and former minister of environment Leona Aglukkaq. Aglukkaq had to apologize in December 2014 for reading the newspaper while opposition parties asked the government about high food prices in the North during Question Period. She also once indicated that there’s still “debate” about some elements of climate science.

The Liberals will have a lot of catching up to do on the environment file. New documents obtained by CBC indicate federal efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will make just a small dent, in part due to many of the most effective programs — such as the ecoEnergy efficiency programs to help homes and business save energy — being cancelled by the Conservative government.

"For the last 10 years at the federal-provincial table they wouldn't even allow the word climate change to be used. That's a challenge," Ontario's Environment Minister Glen Murray told the CBC.

That means incoming McKenna faces an uphill battle — but also that there are plenty of opportunities for improvement at a time of unprecedented global momentum for action on climate change.

Last week the news broke that the International Monetary Fund will start to factor climate change into its economic forecasts. That means its well-regarded World Economic Outlook could expose how moves to cut greenhouse gas emissions will threaten growth in oil-exporting countries such as Canada.

“Canada has vast, untapped clean energy potential and developing these resources is both a key climate solution and important economic opportunity,” Smith of Clean Energy Canada said.

Trudeau also created a cabinet committee on environment, climate change and energy on Wednesday morning. The committee will be chaired by Minister of Foreign Affairs Stephane Dion.

Smith says establishing that committee “sends a clear signal that the new federal government understands that environmental protection and economic prosperity must go hand-in-hand, and is committed to taking an integrated approach to managing our natural resources, fighting climate change and growing our clean energy sector.”

Image: Flickr

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Promises of a closer relationship between B.C. and Alaska and more consultation on B.C. mine applications are a good start, but, so far, Southeast Alaska has no more guarantees that those mines will not pollute salmon-bearing rivers than before this week’s visit by B.C.’s Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett, say Alaskan fishing and conservation groups.

Bennett, accompanied by senior civil servants from the ministries of Energy and Mines and Environment, took a conciliatory tone as he met with state officials, policy-makers and critics of what is seen as an aggressive push by B.C. to develop mines in the transboundary area, close to vitally important salmon rivers such as the Unuk, Taku and Stikine.

“I understand why people feel so strongly about protecting what they have,” Bennett said in a Juneau news conference with Alaska Lt. Governor Byron Mallott.

“There’s a way of life here that has tremendous value and the people here don’t want to lose it. I get that,” he said.

But promises of a strengthened dialogue and more opportunities to comment on mine applications fall far short of a growing chorus of Alaskan demands that the issue be referred to the International Joint Commission, formed under the Boundary Waters Treaty, which forbids either country from polluting transboundary waters.

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It was a step forward to have such a high-level meeting, said Chris Zimmer of Rivers Without Borders, but it is an international issue that demands international attention.

“Increased involvement in the B.C permitting process is not a bad thing, but it is not a solution on its own. In other words, we stand firm for the need of an international solution under the Boundary Waters Treaty,” Zimmer said.

Both sides agreed the status quo cannot continue, but the question is how to move forward, Zimmer said.

“How do we move from words to real, concrete action to protect Alaska’s interests?”

Bennett did not rule out the possibility of going to the International Joint Commission, but felt it was premature and the commission should be brought in only if the province and state could not work it out between themselves, said Heather Hardcastle of Salmon Beyond Borders, a coalition of fishing, tribal, tourism and community organizations.

There was also no agreement on the question of how Alaskans would be compensated if there was an upstream spill.

“We are saying we are taking on the lion’s share of the risk and we are not receiving the benefits and there is nothing in place right now, Minister Bennett told us, to deal with liability,” Hardcastle said at a news conference following a meeting with Bennett.

“That’s just unacceptable to us that there’s nothing to compensate us for the lack of our livelihood.”

Financial assurances that Alaskans would be compensated if B.C. mining damages fisheries and water quality are needed prior to projects receiving permits, Hardcastle said.

Dale Kelley, Alaska Trollers Association executive director, said the universal theme was how to ensure no harm befalls Alaska’s fisheries.

“It was quite disturbing to hear the minister say there really is no remedy,” she said.

Both federal governments need to be involved in compensation discussions as a spill would mean a disaster on a scale that could not be handled by the state and provincial governments, Kelley said.

During the visit, Bennett agreed that B.C. should fix leakage from the Tulsequah Chief Mine, that, through a tributary, flows into the Taku River.

Decades of failed promises to fix the leakage have been a thorn in the side of many Alaskans, even though it is not known whether the mine drainage is hurting fish.

After touring the Taku River by helicopter Monday, Bennett told reporters it should be fixed.

“I think B.C is going to have to find a way to rectify it sooner than later and I think it is a most legitimate criticism of us by those folks in Alaska who don’t like it,” he said.

The Tulsequah Chief, now owned by Chieftain Metals Corp, was closed by Cominco in 1957 without acid mine drainage cleanup or site reclamation and despite numerous B.C orders, subsequent owners failed to clean up the mess. The mine was bought by Chieftain in 2010 when the company accepted the environmental liabilities and installed an interim water treatment plant.

“It’s clearly a black eye for Canada,” Zimmer said.

Solutions now, if Chieftain does not reopen the mine and get a grip on the drainage problems, are for B.C. to close down the mine properly — something likely to cost multi-millions of dollars — or to spend $4-million a year to treat the waste in perpetuity, Zimmer said.

“We are looking for very specific action to back these words up.”

Photo: Minister of Energy and Mines Bill Bennett. Credit: Province of British Columbia.

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Lis Stannus remembers how serious the problem of acid rain was in Ontario when she lived on a farm near Lake Huron as a child. So when Rio Tinto Alcan informed Kitimat residents of its plans to increase sulphur dioxide pollution — a key contributor to acid rain —she couldn’t understand why no one fought back.

“Nobody was speaking out,” Stannus said, “and I found it amazing that those people who should have been speaking out weren’t.”

Rio Tinto Alcan received a permit from the B.C. government in 2013 that allowed the company to increase production of aluminum at its smelter in Kitimat, leading to a 56 per cent increase in sulphur dioxide emissions. Currently, both the government and Rio Tinto Alcan are defending that permit in front of a tribunal acting for the B.C. Environmental Appeals Board in Kitimat.

Rio Tinto Alcan says its ‘modernization’ of the smelter is now 94 per cent complete although the tribunal has the power to rescind the province’s permit, putting the immediate future of the plant in question.

The Muzzle Effect: Small Town, Big Company

Stannus said when she first heard about the emissions increase she contacted the city, the Kitimat health authority and local environmental groups to push back against the company’s plans, to no avail.

But it didn’t take long for Stannus to realize “there was a lot of muzzling” going on, she said. “We are all muzzled here.”

Part of the problem, Stannus said, is that the aluminum plant is a major job provider for Kitimat.

“Without Alcan, Kitimat would be nothing,” she said. “Kitimat literally wouldn’t be here.”

Alcan, now owned by multi-national mining magnate Rio Tinto, used to be fondly referred to as “Uncle Al” by Kitimat residents.

The company created Kitimat as an artificial township in the 1950s to support a growing workforce. Although the planned city was originally created with 150,000 residents in mind, its current population is between 8,000 and 9,000 — about 1,400 of which rely on the smelter for employment.

“It’s like nobody would speak out if they worked for Rio Tinto Alcan,” she said. “You just wouldn’t speak up.”

Stannus said she recently spoke to an employee of Rio Tinto Alcan who said he was reprimanded by company officials for posting about sulphur dioxide emissions on his Facebook page.

Morris Amos from the Haisla First Nation said his band council and Rio Tinto Alcan entered into a $22 million “Legacy Agreement” that acts as a gag order on Haisla officials.

“Part of the language of the agreement, which is really more of a contract, includes a clause that talks about the Haisla Nation never coming forward to question anything that Alcan does as long as the agreement is in effect,” he said.

The Legacy Agreement, signed in 2010, guarantees employment, business opportunities and a trust fund for the Haisla Nation as an outcome of Rio Tinto Alcan’s modernization project.

Amos, brother of former elected Haisla chief Gerald Amos, said the agreement means his nation can’t officially question the increase of Rio Tinto Alcan’s sulphur dioxide emissions.

“I take that as a muzzling clause,” he said. “It remains to be seen if that has any force or effect legally — it hasn’t been challenged yet.”

Amos says the Legacy Agreement explains why the Haisla Nation hasn’t played a role in fighting for pollution reductions.

The Legacy Agreement, “is part of the reason why there’s no band council presence in this Environmental Appeals Board hearing,” he said.

Amos said he can speak out about the Legacy Agreement and Rio Tinto Alcan’s sulphur dioxide emissions because he’s not a part of the band council.

“I work for a heredity chief, so that’s another thing altogether.”

Rio Tinto Alcan’s Permit to Pollute

B.C. approved a permit in April 2013 that granted Rio Tinto Alcan the right to increase its sulphur dioxide emissions by 56 per cent.

Stannus, along with fellow Kitimat resident Emily Toews, is appealing that permit approval in the Environmental Appeals Board hearing, arguing the increase in sulphur dioxide emissions unnecessarily threatens human health.

“I was really mad,” Stannus said. “Because it seemed like an infringement of our rights and it went against everything the government told us we were working towards: reducing emissions, keeping the air clean.”

Stannus realized she needed to speak out. “ I thought, ‘I can do it. I don’t have anything to lose.’”

Pollution Reduction Measures Not Required by Province

Rio Tinto Alcan’s ability to reduce its sulphur dioxide emissions is central to the appeal hearings.

Giving testimony before the appeal panel, Ian Sharpe, director of environmental protection with the B.C. Ministry of Environment, said before granting the permit he required evidence Rio Tinto Alcan “could and would” install pollution reduction technology called scrubbers “should there be a need to have emissions lower than what they applied for.”

But rather than require the company to install scrubbers, which would prevent the increase of sulphur dioxide emissions, the province granted Rio Tinto Alcan a permit to increase its emissions for an indefinite amount of time.

Sharpe told the panel he decided not to impose sulphur dioxide limits on Rio Tinto Alcan because both B.C. and the federal government are considering updating their own standards in coming years.

Stannus said she doesn’t understand why the province will allow emissions to go up if the company has already prepared for the installation of scrubbers.

“I learned there was a place put at the plant for wet scrubbers. That was a backup plan,” she said. “I thought, ‘if scrubbers aren’t feasible, why would they do that?’”

Stannus thinks it comes down to penny pinching. Rio Tinto Alcan initially announced its modernization project would cost just over $2 billion but that number has recently skyrocketed to nearly $5 billion.

The Environmental Appeal Board hearings are currently taking place in Kitimat and are now in their third week. The panel could rescind Rio Tinto Alcan’s permit or order the company to install scrubbers.

Image Credit: Lis Stannus courtesy of Doug Keech.

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Move over Duffy diaries. There’s a new black book in town.

That’s the detailed work journal of B.C. Ministry of Environment senior official Frazer McKenzie, which recounts conversations between ministry officials and Rio Tinto Alcan while the company was applying for a permit to increase aluminum production at its Kitimat smelter.

“Frazer McKenzie was a diligent and thorough employee. He documented ongoings with Rio Tinto Alcan within government that we’d otherwise never know about,” lawyer Chris Tollefson told DeSmog Canada.

During the application process, Rio Tinto Alcan financed McKenzie’s position at the Ministry of Environment through a secondment agreement and government officials repeatedly refer to the company as a “client.”

DeSmog Canada has learned this parlance has become commonplace between ministry officials and industry. Indeed, much of what occurred in the Rio Tinto Alcan case appears to be standard operating procedure. 

McKenzie's journal — made public due to an appeal — offers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of B.C.'s Ministry of Environment. 

The ministry has argued that it agreed to allow the company to fund McKenzie’s position because of concerns there would be “inadequate staffing to deal with the application” otherwise. Such arrangements with industry are not entirely unusual due to chronic underfunding.* 

Rio Tinto Alcan’s application, which was approved by B.C. in 2013, granted the company the right to increase sulphur dioxide emissions in the Kitimat airshed by 56 per cent.

Sulphur dioxide is released from the combustion of sulphur-laden fossil fuels — such as the petroleum coke used to smelt aluminum — and irritates eyes, noses, throats and lungs. People with asthma, children and the elderly are at increased risk from sulphur dioxide exposure.

Two Kitimat elementary school teachers — Emily Toews, who suffers from asthma, and Lis Stannus — are now challenging that permit approval through the B.C. Environmental Appeals Board, arguing the project threatens human and environmental health. The appeal, being heard by a tribunal in Kitimat, is in its third week.

“This case really does represent a situation where you have a regulator that has gotten too close to a powerful and well-resourced private interest that it is supposed to be independently regulating,” Tollefson told the tribunal.

Central to the tribunal are the extensive notes McKenzie took while the Ministry of Environment, including manager of environmental protection Ian Sharpe, and Rio Tinto Alcan discussed the company’s permit application.

On Monday, Sharpe told the appeals panel Rio Tinto Alcan was “after comfort in the authorization process” and that he discussed the possibility of creating “some kind of comfort letter or document…that would give Rio Tinto Alcan’s board the comfort they needed to get on with funding.”

“This is B.C.’s version of the Duffy senate scandal: it shows how deeply comfortable government and industry are with one other,” said Richard Overstall, counsel for Emily Toews.

Notebook Shows B.C. Left Sulphur Dioxide Limits Unanswered

McKenzie’s notes show the provincial government was aware of scrubbing technology — used to eliminate sulphur dioxide emissions from smelters around the world — but chose not to require Rio Tinto Alcan to put that technology in place.

Under cross-examination, McKenzie read aloud his notes, which referenced Rio Tinto Alcan’s request to eliminate the mention of scrubbers from an internal memo. He also noted a phone call from a deputy minister who “did not want to let a little SO2 get in the way” of Rio Tinto Alcan’s project.

McKenzie’s journals also show the company was anxious about the projected increase of sulphur dioxide emissions from the modernization project and wanted regulatory certainty to calm investors.

Rio Tinto Alcan requested specific sulphur dioxide discharge limits during the creation of a joint memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the province. Under the MOU, the province committed to regulate Rio Tinto Alcan under sulphur dioxide standards from the 1970s — and guaranteed those weak rules would stay in effect for the project until at least the end of 2018, even though the province introduced much stronger interim standards in 2014.

Those weak standards were eventually dropped altogether by Sharpe, who said he began to consider them “obsolete,” but told the panel he could not recall when. No new standards for Rio Tinto Alcan’s smelter have been put into place and, according to Sharpe, won’t be in place until B.C. or the federal government mandate them after conducting a full public consultation.

McKenzie’s notes make numerous mentions to Rio Tinto Alcan’s desire for “certainty” regarding potential SO2 standards.

“SO2 is troubling to Alcan,” McKenzie wrote in one entry entered into evidence. “Insisting they have limit ahead of time — something in writing.”

McKenzie noted in one internal correspondence, “Alcan is anxious to get green light…to provide good news on project to stakeholders.”

The province approved the company’s permit in 2013 but did not release an environmental monitoring plan until 18 months later. Although the modernization project is very close to complete, it remains without sulphur dioxide emission limits.

Appellants Point to Regulatory Capture

Between the period of 2007 and 2013, McKenzie was seconded to Rio Tinto Alcan, which funded his position. He worked closely with the company during the permit application process.

Tollefson argues Sharpe's close ties with Rio Tinto Alcan influenced and ultimately fettered his decision-making.

The evidence shows that government of B.C. and Rio Tinto Alcan “deliberated carefully over the language” contained in their agreement “knowing that it might be challenged in court on the ground that it fettered the discretion of the decision-maker charged with granting the permit,” he told the panel.

“We need to reinvigorate the idea of a regulator as a fearless public defender,” he said.

That was not the case with Ministry of Environment officials, who, according to Tollefson, throughout years of documents refer to Rio Tinto Alcan as a “client” and tend to view the world through “industry-coloured glasses.”

Overstall said there was a “slow creep” of industry’s interests into government activities.

“That’s what we see with the Duffy scandal: these guys get so involved they lose their compass,” he said.

“No one wakes up one morning and decides, ‘I’m going to get cozy with industry.’ It’s more of a slow creep,” Overstall said. “They make small decisions one after another behind closed doors thinking what they’re doing is okay until suddenly the public spotlight is shone on them.”

* This story was updated after publication to add more context about the frequency of secondments and the use of the term "client" to refer to companies applying for permits with the Ministry of Environment.

Image Credit: Rio Tinto Alcan

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When the B.C. Ministry of Environment approved Rio Tinto Alcan’s application to modernize its aluminum smelter in Kitimat, B.C., local resident Emily Toews assumed that would mean an improvement in the plant’s emissions.

But the modernization project, which will increase the plant’s production, will raise sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions by 56 per cent from 27 to 42 tonnes per day.

Toews, who suffers from asthma, told a tribunal in Kitimat Monday she decided to remain in Kitimat in 2010, rather than move to West Kelowna with her husband, because she had “previous knowledge that the modernization project would reduce emissions.”

The tribunal, hosted by the B.C. Environmental Appeals Board, is entering its third week in Kitimat after two weeks in Victoria. The board began investigating the government's approval of the Rio Tinto Alcan modernization project after Toews and fellow Kitimat resident Lis Stannus asked it to overturn the decision, saying increased sulphur dioxide emissions endangered their community's health.

The project, granted approval from the B.C. government in 2013, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the smelter, but not sulphur dioxide emissions because Rio Tinto Alcan was not required to introduce scrubbers, commonly used in smelters to remove the pollutant from airborne emissions.

Toews, who has a 10-month old child and is a kindergarten teacher, said she’s worried about the impact the increased pollution will have on the community’s children.

Sulphur dioxide, a pungent pollutant that results primarily from fossil fuel combustion, irritates the skin as well as the mucous membranes of the eyes, nose, throat and lungs. Exposure to sulphur dioxide aggravates the respiratory systems of asthmatics and is known to negatively affect the respiratory systems of children and the elderly. 

She told the tribunal that several children in the Kitimat school where she teaches suffer from asthma.

“Working at an elementary school there are a lot of illnesses going around,” she said. “During allergy season I often have to help kids, or help administer their medication before they go outdoors.”

”I’m concerned for other people in the community,“ she said.

Toews questioned why, if solutions like scrubbers are a possibility, the province didn’t require them when approving the smelter modernization project.

Scrubbers, which can either create dry sulphur waste or can use seawater which converts SO2 to sulfates for a benign release into the ocean, are commonly used in European smelters.

Toews told the panel she cannot see why the province wouldn’t require Rio Tinto Alcan to employ scrubbers to eliminate the SO2 emissions problem in Kitimat.

“No I’m not opposed to the modernization project, however I am opposed to increasing one emission — sulphur dioxide — and I don’t understand why that emission was left out of this 'state of the art' modernization process,” Toews said.

“I’d like this panel to consider having Rio Tinto produce the best state of the art reduction in emissions possible with the technologies that are available and to my knowledge there are technologies that are available to do that.”

An expert witness who previously gave testimony during the hearings told the panel Rio Tinto Alcan was avoiding paying for the installment of scrubbers and thereby externalizing the costs of SO2 emissions onto the health of local households.

Chris Tollefson, a lawyer representing Toews’ co-apellant Lis Stannus, said the company is primed to install scrubbers in a “plug and play” manner.

“There’s no dispute on the evidence that these scrubbers can be installed with relative ease,” he told the panel. “In fact, the [Kitimat modernization project] has been designed and built with an onsite area specifically set aside for scrubbers to be retrofitted…on what the experts describe is a ‘plug and play’ basis.”

Tollefson said the company’s issue with scrubbers is cost — an estimated $100 to $200 million for installment, not including operating costs. The company estimated the modernization project would cost $3.3 billion but overruns have the project nearing $5 billion last summer.

Rio Tinto Alcan has “made this very clear to the provincial government…that they simply do not want to spend the money.” Government officials from the B.C. Ministry of Environment were also too concerned with Rio Tinto’s interests, Tollefson previously argued, alleging the project’s approval without scrubbers at the provincial level is the result of regulatory capture.

Tollefson said he is asking the panel to “weigh the financial benefit to Rio Tinto Alcan of not being held to a rigorous environmental standard against the cost to the environment and human health of allowing Rio Tinto Alcan to increase its SO2 emissions by 56 per cent.”

The hearings, conducted by the B.C. Environmental Appeals Board, are currently underway in Kitimat.

Image Credit: Rio Tinto Alcan

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The B.C. Ministry of Environment was too concerned with the interests of Rio Tinto Alcan when it granted the company a permit to dramatically increase the release of sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions in the Kitimat airshed, attendants of a tribunal heard in Victoria on Monday.

“This case raises the specter, in a very real way, of regulatory capture,” Chris Tollefson, lawyer for the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre, argued in his opening statement.

Tollefson said the B.C. Ministry of Environment put senior official Frazer McKenzie in a conflicted position when it allowed Rio Tinto Alcan to pay his salary between 2007 and 2013 — during which time McKenzie was tasked with reviewing an upgrading application for the company’s Kitimat smelter.

In 2013, the province, acting through Ian Sharpe, environmental manager for the Ministry of Environment,  granted Rio Tinto Alcan permission to proceed with a $3.3 billion modernization project that would increase production and the amount of sulphur dioxide emissions released into the Kitimat airshed.

Two Kitimat residents, Emily Toews and Lis Stannus, appealed the project’s approval in 2013 with the B.C. Environmental Appeal Board, arguing the 56 per cent increase in sulphur dioxide emissions would threaten human and environmental health. Toews and Stannus are both elementary school teachers in the region.

“This case really does represent a situation where you have a regulator that has gotten too close to a powerful and well-resourced private interest that it is supposed to be independently regulating,” Tollefson told the tribunal, an independent body tasked with hearing appeals submitted to the Environmental Appeals Board.

Tollefson alleged Rio Tinto Alcan was granted too much authority in the decision-making process and “in the end got exactly what it wanted.”

The province announced the project did not require an environmental assessment because overall emissions will be reduced as a result of the modernization project — even though SO2 emissions are set to increase.

Tollefson argued that because Ministry of Environment officials were too wrapped up with Rio Tinto Alcan’s interests, they did not order the company to install scrubbers, designed to ‘scrub’ SO2 pollution out of the smelter’s effluent.

However, Rio Tinto Alcan has “covered its bets,” Tollefson said, by “setting aside the ability to install these scrubbers on a plug and play model” should the province decide to require them.

“If this Panel decides to order the installation of scrubbers, there is no technological or logistical reason why Rio Tinto Alcan can’t comply with that,” he said.

The province has not required scrubbers be installed — at an anticipated cost of between $100 and $200 million to the company — because “this concern to keep Rio Tinto Alcan content…in the end overshadowed the concern that should have been shown for the public interest.”

Ben Naylor, co-counsel for the Ministry of Environment said there was no conflict of interest and that Rio Tinto Alcan funded McKenzie’s position because of concerns there would be “inadequate staffing to deal with the application, including the application to increase sulphur dioxide.”

“This agreement allowed the government to secure funding for a complicated position,” he told the tribunal. “Without this funding this permit would not have been dealt with in the timeframe provided or with the amount of scientific rigour needed.”

Dan Bennett, a lawyer representing Rio Tinto Alcan, said the appellants have raised “no credible concerns” with the smelter’s modernization project. Doyle argued the changes will reduce the plant’s environmental footprint including reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent.

But, he added, he does “acknowledge that suphur dioxide emissions are intended to increase and that results from the increased level of aluminum production.” 

Co-counsel for Rio Tinto Alcan Jana McLean added the “appellants request in this appeal to amend the permit to require scrubbers lacks any evidentiary foundation and is without scientific merit.”

The hearing will continue in Victoria for two weeks (April 27 – May 1 and May 11 – May 15) before continuing in Kitimat.

Image Credit: Robin Rowland

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A former luxury fishing lodge on a remote island off B.C.’s Central Coast has been transformed into a cutting-edge research centre, producing some of the province’s most innovative science.

From early April until mid-October each year the off-the-grid Hakai Institute field station on Calvert Island houses renowned scientists, university professors, graduate students and post-doctoral students researching all aspects of the B.C. coast, from grizzly bears and sea otters to sand formations, archaeology and microbes.

The breadth of the research was show-cased Friday when more than 200 scientists and First Nations researchers gathered in Sidney for the Hakai Research Exchange.

And, sitting at the back of the room, listening intently to the presentations, were the two people who have made the field research station a reality.

The Hakai Institute and, now, a new field station on Quadra Island, are funded and run by Eric Peterson and Christina Munck, co-founders of the Tula Foundation.

The concept was born out of a love for the B.C. coast, combined with a realization that — despite a lot of talk about areas such as the Great Bear Rainforest — almost no coastal science was being conducted at the community level, Peterson said.

That science gap convinced the couple to put their money into the project after they sold their successful information technology company.

“I talked to university scientists and they would say it was so difficult to do work up there because there were no facilities,” Peterson said in an interview.

“The Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Ministry of Environment and all the government services were stepping backwards. The paradox was that, with all the talk about how wonderful our coast is, at the community level and First Nations level, there was no work on the ground.”

Peterson decided to combine his entrepreneurial skills with Munck’s background in conservation and botany to create a venue where up-and-coming scientific talent could be mentored.

The Tula Foundation purchased the fishing lodge in 2009 and then the work of turning it into a field station started in earnest.

“We had to rebuild the power grid and the water system and the sewage system and the docks and then in 2012 we started doing science in a significant way and since then the enthusiasm has been almost frightening,” Peterson said.

“The growth has been greater than I would have expected. I think it indicates there’s such a pent-up demand for long-term ecological research.”

Chris Darimont, Hakai-Raincoast geography professor at the University of Victoria, has seen the benefits first hand as he conducts bear research.

“At a time when support for science has generally eroded across Canada, an absolute explosion of discovery is occurring in one of the least studied, but most beautiful parts of the planet,” he said.

The foundation funds graduate students and post-doctoral students, most of whom are itching to have the opportunity to get out of their laboratories and into the field, Peterson said.

In addition to becoming a place where “brilliant students can come and do their work” it is also a place where various parties and agencies can come together and talk about controversial issues, Peterson said.

“It’s a special place where politics gets left at the door.”

Research Includes How Sockeye Salmon Are Coping With Climate Change

Research themes are based on answering important questions, excellent science and great opportunities for teaching, Peterson said.

But, even with those criteria, there have been surprises, such as the archaeology program, he said.

“I had no interest in archaeology, but people pointed out to me that, where we were on the Central Coast, was a particularly appropriate place to do world-class archaeology. That was our first hit record,” he said.

At the Research Exchange, researchers described nine sites around the Discovery Islands where evidence of human activity from about 7,500 years ago is being studied.

“And there is at least 6,000 years of human history before that time,” said Quentin Mackie, a University of Victoria anthropology professor, describing discoveries of stone tool technology.

PhD student Will Atlas is studying how sockeye salmon are coping with warmer water temperatures and hoping a tagging program will help explain how climate change will affect salmon populations around the Central Coast.

Sam Harrison, of the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre, is venturing into controversial territory as he looks at how diseases at fish farms are reported.

Information released by the federal government is useless as it is not specific — meaning it does not reveal which farms have diseased fish — and it is not accessible, he said.

“Disease publication matters because it enables independent research and informs decisions about farm siting,” he said.

Disease reporting falls far short of the information provided in Scotland and Norway, Harrison said.

For Peterson, the variety of research demonstrates that his vision has become a reality.

“There’s tremendous chemistry,” he said.

“It’s magic when (people) work on accomplishing something together.”

Image: Hakai Institute

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It has been 10 days since the tailings pond holding billions of litres of mining waste breached at the Mount Polley mine near Likely, B.C. sending arsenic and mercury-laced water and slurry into the Hazeltine Creek which feeds Quesnel Lake, a major source of drinking water and home to one quarter of the province’s sockeye salmon.

Yet local residents still have no idea when clean up of the spill site might begin.

On a recent trip to the spill site, DeSmog Canada learned no cleanup crews are currently working on removing the tremendous amount of mining waste clogging up what used to be the Hazeltine Creek and spreading out into Quesnel Lake.

David Karn, media relations with the ministry of environment, was unable to provide information or comment on an expected cleanup date or who would be performing the cleanup, industry or government.

Imperial Metals, also reached out to for comment, was unable to respond by the time of publication.

On Tuesday, August 12, representatives from the Cariboo Regional District (CRD) announced a local drinking water ban placed on Quesnel Lake and the Quesnel River would be lifted after sampling showed the water was safe for consumption.

A water use ban remains in effect for 100 metres surrounding the debris field at the convergence of the Hazeltine Creek and Quesnel Lake.

Coralee Oakes, local MLA and minister of community, sport and development told DeSmog Canada that regular water testing will continue and that sample results will be made available online. The CRD will continue to supply residents and tourists with free drinking water and temporary showers at a forestry camp.

But community members have expressed concern over the remnants of the spill, which sit leaching into the lake, and a large cloudy plume of suspended solids in the water, visible from the air.

Richard Holmes, fisheries biologist with Cariboo Envirotech and local resident for 38 years, said sophisticated equipment is needed to survey the extent of the spill underwater.

“We’re talking with industry about getting some underwater cameras in there,” he said.

Holmes is working with the Soda Creek First Nation to ensure First Nations are involved in cleanup efforts, once they begin.

In the meantime, locals are left to speculate about lingering contaminants in their water.

Despite the recently-lifted drinking water ban, many residents admitted they will not drink the water.

Freshwater expert and biogeochemist Dr. David Schindler said random, localized sampling of contaminated water “may not detect the damage done.”

“I understand that considerable arsenic, mercury, cadmium, lead and copper were among the elements released,” he said. “All are extremely toxic.”

Schindler said he suspects the biggest long-term threat lies in areas where sediment from the spill overlaps with spawning and rearing habitat for fish.

“In the St. Lawrence River, most of the contamination of fish with mercury occurs at a few sites where contaminated sediment is deposited and [which] fish also use for feeding or nursery habitat,” he said.

But detailed knowledge of spill sites is usually scant, he said. “Unfortunately, there is not this basic sort of information available for most sites and the sampling done after an accident is more or less random.”

“Our monitoring of habitats around all industrial sites in important aquatic systems in this country is in serious need of upgrading,” he said. “Without background information on fish populations, habitats and toxic concentrations, it is almost impossible to determine how much damage is done.”

“Sometimes it is hard to believe that the lack of pre-accident information is not deliberate,” he said.

This article is part of a joint-venture between the Vancouver Observer and DeSmog Canada.

Image Credit: Carol Linnitt

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The latest in a series of moves clearing the way for major tar sands expansion, the federal government has announced certain projects will no longer require a federal environmental impact assessment before approval. Notably absent from the list of projects requiring assessment is in situ mining, the fastest growing extraction method in the tar sands.

While the more commonly used open-pit mining requires digging up bitumen and sand from beneath the boreal forest, in situ mining pumps steam deep into the ground to melt and pump out the oil in place. The process typically occurs 200 metres or more below ground.

As shallow deposits of bitumen are exploited using open-pit mining, tar sands producers are using increasing amounts of in situ technology to develop deeper deposits. According to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, 80 per cent of all tar sands oil will be developed using in situ technology.

The ongoing tar sands spill on Canadian Natural Resources Ltd's (CNRL) operations occurred on a project using high pressure cyclic steam stimulation, or CSS, an in situ method of recovery. 

In addition to in situ mining, several other types of projects have also been excluded from federal environmental assessment:

• Groundwater extraction facilities.
• Heavy oil and oil sands processing facilities, pipelines (other than offshore pipelines) and electrical transmission lines that are not regulated by the National Energy Board.
• Potash mines and other industrial mineral mines (salt, graphite, gypsum, magnesite, limestone, clay, asbestos).
• Industrial facilities (pulp mills, pulp and paper mills, steel mills, metal smelters, leather tanneries, textile mills and facilities for the manufacture of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, pressure-treated wood, particle board, plywood, chemical explosives, lead-acid batteries and respirable mineral fibres)

There are also a handful of projects that weren’t previously required to undergo an environmental assessment that will require one going forward:

• Diamond mines.
• Apatite mines.
• Railway yards; international and interprovincial bridges and tunnels.
• Bridges that cross the St. Lawrence Seaway.
• Offshore exploratory wells.
• Oil sands mine expansions.

Before the change, whenever a federal authority planned to be involved in a new project, one of three levels of assesment was triggered. The lowest level screening required proponents to document the potential environmental impact of the project. The next level required a comprehensive study, and projects considered to carry the highest level of risk were subject a full panel review. In situ projects typically fell in the mid range.

After last year’s omnibus bill cancelled nearly 3,000 environmental assessments, the removal of the trigger mechanism will leave a significant gap in the assessment process.

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, the body responsible for evaluating the potential impact of new projects on areas that fall under federal jurisdiction, such as waterways and greenhouse gas emissions, consulted stakeholders in the oil and gas industry as well as environmental groups. Last Thursday’s news release from the Ministry of Environment said the changes were made “to ensure that federal environmental assessments are focused on those major projects with the greatest potential for significant adverse environmental impacts to matters of federal jurisdiction.”

Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Keith Stewart said the change is just another way for the federal government to ignore climate change. “I think it shows that the government simply doesn’t want to the information. It’s kind of a ‘see no evil, hear no evil’ type approach.”

You can’t regulate something you don’t know about, he added.

He said the push for a list-based approach to assessment came from the industry, which also lobbied against having in situ projects included on that list.

“What this means here is a whole lot of projects that don’t get any kind of federal review.”

This announcement comes on the heels of a report released last week that reveals the current government's efforts to rein in greenhouse gas emissions are falling well short of the mark. In spite of new regulations for the oil and gas industry, Canada is still likely to exceed its 2020 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target by as much as 122 megatonnes. The goal is 612 megatonnes, and the report predicts Canada will hit 734 in the next seven years.

The report also projects that by 2020 in situ projects will be producing more greenhouse gases than the Maritime provinces combined at today's levels.      According to the Copenhagen Accord, signed in 2009, Canada agreed to reduce carbon emissions to 17 percent below 2005 levels, or 612 megatonnes. The report credits action taken by consumers, businesses and governments with keeping levels from rising to more than 800 megatonnes.

Hannah McKinnon, program manager at Environmental Defence Canada, says the government’s failure to meet reduction targets comes as no surprise.

“It’s a pretty bleak picture, but the writing was on the wall. We currently haven’t seen any ambition from [the government] to indicate that they were serious at all about meeting their targets.”

While the report highlights the uncertainty of the projection, saying that a lot can change depending how regulations change, McKinnon says none of the options currently under discussion will come close to closing the gap.

“There’s still space to meet the target,” she says. "It just would require a level of ambition we don’t have a lot of reason to believe this government is going to show.”

McKinnon says the Harper government’s strong presence in Washington, DC, drawing connections between American and Canadian GHG targets, only serves to further illustrate Canada’s hypocrisy.

“The US has a plan to meet that. What this report clearly shows is that our government doesn’t have a plan to reach that target.”

Image Credit: Suncor Energy via Flickr

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