New study shows Northern Pulp mill emissions exceeded federal threshold by 100,000%

Dalhousie University researchers tracking air pollutants released by the Atlantic Canadian pulp and paper industry over nearly two decades say emissions from the Northern Pulp operation in Nova Scotia were higher than all other mills combined — and exceeded recommended federal thresholds for particulates by a "staggering" 100,000 per cent.

Paper Excellence, which owns the mill, says the reporting thresholds are not the same as environmental standards, which it met. The mill shut down in 2020 after it failed to secure approval for a proposed effluent treatment facility.

The School for Resource and Environmental Studies used publicly available government data to compare annual air emissions for seven pollutants from nine mills in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador between 2002 and 2019.

For most of that time frame, Northern Pulp in Pictou County grossly exceeded minimum thresholds set by Environment and Climate Change Canada for a pollutant known as Total Particulate Matter 2.5.

"That's the tiniest particulate matter that can be ingested into lungs and can cause human health impacts," said Tony Walker, who co-authored a paper based on research carried out by graduate student Gianina Massa. 

"It exceeded the threshold by 100,000 per cent. It was staggering when we compared that against the other mills."

Those levels dropped dramatically after Paper Excellence installed a machine called a precipitator to capture particulates in 2015.

"To put that into context, other mills with similar operations were … reasonably and comfortably below those reporting thresholds prior to 2016," said Walker. 

"But I wonder why it went on for so long that there were not just even moderate exceedances, but such massive exceedances for so long."

The study compared annual releases of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, total particulate matter (TPM), PM2.5, PM10, sulphur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds reported to the National Pollutant Release Inventory.

Estimated annual releases above lower limits trigger voluntary self-reporting to the registry, however there are no repercussions for exceedances.

The recommended thresholds are not environmental standards but part of a "best practice" approach taken by the federal government.

The researchers report that overall annual releases from Atlantic mills were "several orders of magnitude" higher than the federal reporting thresholds suggested by Environment and Climate Change Canada. Pulp mills generated higher pollutant loads than those producing paper.

"Considering that most of the time all mills exceeded the reporting thresholds, it would be helpful to compare how hazardous those releases are with the inclusion of an upper limit or threshold or change the unit of reporting to enable the comparison with other standards and countries," reads the study.