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2005 Proposed Landspreading of Pulp mill Waste in BC
Secret Test results Released for the first time
See the lab report (pdf 128 kb) These 1998 test results were derived from a sludge sample from an interior mill in British Columbia, with a 100% chlorine dioxide bleaching and with a highly efficient effluent treatment system.
Secret Sludge Test Results inform Extended Landspreading Debate
December 7, 2005
Reach for Unbleached (RFU) has released lab test results on a secret sample of pulp mill sludge for the first time in the face of renewed debate over the proposal by the provincial government for a code of practice allowing the spreading of industrial sludge waste on farmland and forests.
With the public consultation deadline extended from the original one month after public outcry over lack of notice, the online process will now be in place to collect public input until December 15 th. The RFU samples have thus far been the only data put forward on the chemical composition of pulp mill sludge, specifically named in the intentions paper for the code of practice.
The lab report is an analysis of the secret sample collected in 1998 from an undisclosed interior pulp mill when the industry last pressed for standing regulations allowing for the practice of landspreading sludge. The industry dropped their proposal following the sample collection as a result of fierce opposition by local citizens and environmental organizations so the lab test results were never published.
“Nothing has really changed since these samples were taken,” said Delores Broten, Senior Policy Analyst for Reach for Unbleached. “The industry hasn’t changed, the nature of the sludge hasn’t changed; in fact the only thing that has changed is that this proposal is considerably less stringent that the last in terms of testing for toxic chemicals.”
The lab test results show a variety of toxic compounds present in the sludge with varying concentrations along with a significant amount of unidentifiable chemicals that are represented as an ‘unresolvable hump’ in the open scan analysis using mass spectrometry technology.
“What’s potentially even more alarming than the dozens of chemical compounds that were identified with known toxic properties is the much greater amount that was present that is unidentified and with no known toxicology,” said Broten. “We call on the government to halt this proposal immediately and invest their efforts into investigating clean production methods that will not result in the indiscriminate spreading of huge amounts of unknown chemicals into the food chain.”
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BC Toxic Sludge Alert from Reach for Unbleached
November 27, 2005
They are at it again! The BC government is proposing, after only 30 days internet based consultation, to allow the almost uncontrolled landspreading of pulp mill sludge, green liquor, lime dregs, and fly ash (that’s the stuff out of the pollution control devices at the top of the stack – they catch the pollution that now BC Environment wants to spread on farmland.)
The Code of Practice requires testing for only 11 metals – worse than the last time out in 2000, when at least the sludge was required to be tested for all the compounds listed in the Contaminated Sites Act! Even then we protested that this was inadequate because of the mix of compounds in pulp mill sludge: No one knows all of the contaminants in pulp mill sludge. We do know that it contains a variety of heavy metals, and chlorinated and non-chlorinated benzenes and phenolics (PAH) and that the amount appears to vary from sample to sample. Nor does anyone know what the actual environmental impacts of landspreading sludge are, because for almost 25 years, industry across North America has been denying environmentalists’ efforts to get some honest testing done.
The new Code of Practice has no recourse for neighbours of the sludge site, does not require records to be publicly available, and throws the burden on to the medical health officers to object if the application is to agricultural land or within a drinking watershed. Even then, all the medical health officer could do is request that the Regional Environment Director add additional management standards.
Looking at the few criteria the regulation does establish, the presentation may be called at best, disingenuous. The BC Statement Of Intentions For The Code Of Practice says: “Most of these numbers are consistent with the standards for metals in fertilizers and supplements established by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and adopted by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) Guidelines for Compost Quality.”
However closer examination reveals that NONE of the metals levels meet the CCME standard for unrestricted or agricultural use, and in the case of mercury the BC reg even exceeds by three times the CCME maximum acceptable level for restricted use!
The regulation proposes that sludge should be handled in compliance with the Organic Matter Recycling Regulation, primarily intended for sewage sludge not industrial waste, but a ministry audit of 10 Vancouver island sewage sludge operations in 2003-04 found that “Overall, none of the sites met all significant requirements of the OMRR.” Organic Matter Recycling Regulation Audit Report 2003-2004,
When the Code of Practice is not working for sewage sludge, why expand the same failures to industrial waste like pulp mill sludge?
This regulation gives industry cheap disposal of its (often toxic) industrial waste by spreading it on farm and forest.
The main problems with this regulation are:
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Lack of knowledge of what really is in the industrial waste which is proposed for spreading on farmland.
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Lack of testing
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Lack of public notification and lack of public recourse
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What few safeguards and standards exist are insufficient, unenforceable and after-the-fact.
For more information about sludge and what we know about it, as well as the historical background to this issue in BC, see http://www.rfu.org/cacw/pollutionSludge1.htm
For the Government notice see:
WHAT TO DO
Please email:
and your local MLA. Ask them to think again, and stop this nightmare before it starts. Contact information is available at:
If you can, please write to your local newspaper or any media you have access to.
You can’t easily post your response on the government “consultation” page but you can email it to cindybertram@shaw.ca
Fax: (250) 562-0628
Address: 4, 1462 Rockland Avenue, Victoria, BC V8S 1W1
BC Minister of Environment Barry Penner
E-mail: barry.penner.mla@leg.bc.ca
Phone: 250 387-1187
Fax: 250 387-1356
PO Box 9047
STN PROV GOVT
Victoria BC V8W 9E2
BC Proposes Toxic Waste To Fertilize Crops
November 24, 2005 Local groups, including the Crofton Airshed Citizens Group (CACG) and Reach for Unbleached (RFU), today condemned the most recent effort by the British Columbia provincial government and local pulp mills to offload toxic waste to the environment and risk human health. An ‘intentions paper’ outlining a code of practice for spreading toxic waste on agricultural and forest land in BC has been put forward for a brief public consultation period prior to preparing and implementing legislation. The Government’s intent is expressed on their website with a November 30 deadline for response
“To call the practice of spreading industrial waste sludge and fly ash on farmland ‘soil enhancement’ is truly a distortion,” said Michael Cooke of CACG. “ No matter what it is called, it is important to understand what chemical compounds will be entering the environment where we grow food. Since we really don’t know what is in the waste but a stew of chlorinated chemical compounds, it’s ludicrous to suggest society will benefit by this proposed practice.”
Pulp mill waste sludge is a cocktail of solid chemical residue left over from the industrial processes going into manufacturing and bleaching pulp and paper. It is known to contain heavy metals and a variety of persistent organic pollutants such as dioxins, PCB’s, and phenolic acids. Fly ash is the remnants of the salty fuel burned in the power boilers and also contains dangerous levels of toxic chemicals.
“To spread the sludge directly on growing soil is no solution to the problems associated with disposing of it,” said Delores Broten of RFU. “There would be no problem with land-spreading composted and decontaminated waste sludge if it could be proven that there were no dangerous toxins left in it, but the current proposal includes no testing regime or decontamination criteria. It is critical to ensure that there is no chance of exposing the food chain to persistent pollutants that bio-accumulate in humans and wildlife.”
The intentions paper refers to a limit on dioxins and furans for waste that would be eligible for land-spreading, but such a limit is necessarily arbitrary and political with no reliable testing criteria to ensure compliance. There is no exclusion for any other chemicals or compounds of concern.
“The acceptable limit for some of the most dangerous chemicals known is zero,” said Broten. “There should be no allowance for release of waste into the environment that has any chance of containing these chemicals. The waste from pulp mills is well known to contain levels of dioxins, furans and other persistent organic pollutants.”
“This code would pave the way for a major industrial polluter to relieve themselves of the problem of toxic waste disposal, at the direct expense of area residents,” said Cooke. “This provides a fundamental permission for industrial polluters to rename their toxic waste as ‘soil enhancement’ and release it into the environment. It’s not healthy, and it’s not acceptable.”
For more information:
contact Delores Broten ( 250)339-6117 or cell (250) 205-0056
Note: The intentions paper can be found at