West Coast Environmental Law
Research Foundation
NewsletterWest Coast Environmental Law
Research Foundation
NewsletterYou are cordially invited to the West Coast Environmental Law Annual General Meeting & Banquet Tuesday, June 18th, 1991, Flamingo House Restaurant, 3489 Fraser Street, Vancouver.
Reception at 6:00 pm, Annual General Meeting at 6:45, dinner will follow. Keynote speech and slides by Dr. red Fred Bunnell, UBC professor of wildlife ecology, recipient of the Gold Medal For Scientific Achievement In Forestry. The cost per person for the evening is $29. Please call our office (684-7378) for tickets.See you at the banquet!
"Enhanced Stewardship" Recommended
The B.C. Forest Resources Commission released its final report this week, following almost two years of hearings and deliberations. The Commission calls for "enhanced stewardship," which it defines as "recognizing that in addition to timber values, values such as cattle production, water quality, recreation, wildlife, wilderness, and aesthetics should all be maximized through proper forest management." The Commission acknowledges "the public's desire to see a full range of values reflected in our forests" but rejects withdrawing large portions of forest land from commercial exploitation. Instead it proposes "managing our forests better for all values."
The Commission makes 108 recommendations, many of which are certain to generate considerable controversy. It calls on government to:
For a copy of the report and an executive summary, contact 700 - 747 Fort Street, Victoria, B.C., V8V 1X4.
Editor's comment: All sides will find something to cheer and something to jeer about in this report. The Commission's recognition of the importance of non-timber values such as water, fish, wildlife and wilderness is the report's biggest strength. Its biggest weakness is that it calls for a massive shift to area-based timber harvesting tenures after only two years of land use planning, despite its recognition that information on forest resources is totally inadequate and will take from five to ten years to assemble. This, combined with its call for requiring the government to pay compensation for future reductions in area-based tenures, would mean that planning options that don't produce bigger cash flows than timber harvesting would be seriously constrained.
B.C. Environment Minister Dave Mercier has confirmed that Cabinet -- not the usual regional-level official -- will issue amended pollution permits for the proposed expansion and modernization of the Celgar pulp mill in Castlegar, B.C., eliminating the public's right to appeal the decision to the B.C. Environmental Appeal Board.
In correspondence with WCELA, Mercier argued that the public has already had an opportunity to make its views known to the Celgar Expansion Review Panel. The Panel's recently released report contains 50 recommendations on how the expansion project should proceed and the project has already received approval in principle by both governments.
The Panel was appointed jointly by the federal government under the Environmental Assessment and Review Process (EARP) and B.C. under the Major Project Review Process (MPRP). But neither process is intended to replace the normal process for issuing pollution permits -- which at the provincial level gives the public an opportunity to comment on the company's application and the right to appeal an unsatisfactory decision.
The Panel recommended that environmental standards for the mill be based not on the Ministry of Environment's usual level "A" Pollution Control Objectives but on much more stringent requirements the company promised to meet during the Panel's hearings.
WCELA has called on both the provincial and federal governments to require the expanded mill to meet the tough pollution standards recommended by the Panel, and to impose an urgent and realistic timetable for the elimination of organochlorines from the mill.
Elevated levels of dioxins and furans in sport fish in Lake Roosevelt in the United States, 30 river miles downstream of Celgar pulp mill, were reported in March in Polychlorinated Dioxins and Furans in Lake Roosevelt (Columbia River) Sport Fish by Art Johnson, et. al., of the Environmental Investigations and Laboratory Services, Washington State Department of Ecology. The authors encourage the earliest possible installation of wastewater treatment and implementation of dioxin/furan control at Celgar pulp mill.
Crestbrook Forest Products Ltd. recently announced it will spend $100 million over three years to upgrade air emission control equipment at its Skookumchuk pulp mill in the Kootenay region of B.C. WCELA has asked B.C. Environment Minister Dave Mercier and Development Minister Howard Dirks to confirm that the province's Major Project Review Process will be applied to this major upgrading project so that the public will have an opportunity for input on the company's plans prior to construction.
After a year and a half of wrangling, the Clayoquot Sound Sustainable Development Task Force went out with a whimper, not a bang. The Task Force's recently released final report admits that it was unable to accomplish its main goal -- a sustainable development strategy for the area.
The Task Force was established in August 1989 to provide a positive alternative to an escalating series of clashes between clearcut logging interests and environmentalists, fishers and tourist industry representatives.
The report blames "the inability of the Task Force to, by consensus, effectively deal with its shortcomings in membership and its opposing views on short term logging issues."
The Task Force concluded that its "experimental" approach should not be used as a model for resolving other land use conflicts. Chief among its complaints were its inability to obtain refinements to its terms of reference, its obligation to solve short-term logging disputes, the lack of prior consultation about the process with all affected parties, and its unrealistically short one-year deadline.
The EDRF gave financial support to Tofino citizens to allow the environmental perspective to be strongly presented on the Task Force. EDRF support also allowed the citizens to obtain expert assistance to parti-cipate effectively in the Tofino Creek Integrated Resource Planning Process, a spin-off of the Task Force, considered to be the main positive outcome of the Task Force process.
The Task Force did recommend that the government appoint a new Steering Committee for Sustainable Development in Clayoquot Sound to develop a sustainable development strategy over a two-year period -- and the government has now done so. The new process is led by Robert Prescott-Allen, one of the primary drafters of the World Conservation Strategy. Short-term disputes will be handled separately from the new process, with the proviso that short-term decisions should not compromise the achievement of the long-term strategy.
Already, however, the government's willingness to allow forest companies to proceed immediately with clearcut logging in three particular valleys has bedevilled the new process. The Tofino Council has publicly called for a moratorium on this logging while the new process develops the long-awaited strategy. Whether the government will stall the logging -- and whether the Council and other environmentally-minded participants will continue with the new process if it doesn't -- is not yet known.
Meanwhile, local and B.C. environmental groups in a recently-formed coalition called the Clayoquot Union for the Conservation of Nature have received an EDRF grant to hold a meeting to prepare for participation in -- or withdrawal from -- the new process.
The Victoria Fish and Game Protective Association recently launched a B.C. Supreme Court proceeding attacking the refusal of a Forest Service official to issue a Special Use Permit to allow the Association to protect wilderness and recreation values against clearcut logging by MacMillan Bloedel in the Nahmint Valley on Vancouver Island. The Association -- represented by Victoria lawyer Timothy Leadem -- argues that the official denied the application on improper grounds. The Nahmint Valley was to have been a model logging operation as a result of the 1975 Nahmint Watershed Integrated Resource Study. However, in April 1990, members of the Association discovered that MacMillan Bloedel's road construction and logging operation had caused debris and road-blasted material to enter Nahmint Lake.
The Hurley Redevelopment and Restoration Society received an EDRF grant to cover the cost of a forestry expert whose report will help the Society participate in a forestry planning process in the Bralorne area. Organizations named in bold have received EDRF grants. The West Coast Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund is used to help individuals and groups resolve environmental disputes through participation in litigation, environmental assessments, administrative tribunals and alternative dispute resolution. Contact WCELA for information.
BC Reg. 64/91, March 12, 1991, pursuant to the Forest Amendment Act (No. 3), 1990: brings into force s.1 of the Amendment Act which adds a new s.25.1 allowing a regional manager to extend the duration of a timber licence and to require the operator to submit an operating plan.
Energy Efficiency Standards Regulation, BC Reg. 72/91, under the Energy Efficiency Act: provides for minimum energy efficiency standards for new household appliances, hot water tanks, gas furnaces and air conditioners sold in BC.
Draft Hazardous Materials Information Review Regulations Amendment, Canada Gazette Part I, page 1122, March, 1991: proposes changing the fee structure for applications by companies for exemption from disclosure of confidential business information to ensure that the fees received cover the full cost of providing the services.
WCELRF Newsletter, copyright 1991, is published by the West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation. This issue was produced by Bill Andrews (editor), Morgan Ashbridge, Ellen Halliday, Ann Hillyer, Catherine Ludgate, Susan Moor, Denice Regnier, Calvin Sandborn, Tim Welsh and Brad Wylynko. Cover graphic courtesy of David Lester. The graphic on page 2 is courtesy of the B.C. Round Table on Environment and Economy. Subscription information is on page 3. WCELRF does research and education and maintains an environmental law library. The West Coast Environmental Law Association provides legal representation and promotes law reform. The mission of WCELRF and WCELA is to provide legal services to protect the environment and to foster public participation in environmental decision-making. We are grateful to the Law Foundation of British Columbia for core funding of the West Coast Environmental Law Association and West
Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation. Donations to WCELRF are tax creditable.
West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation 1001 - 207 West Hastings Vancouver, BC V6B 1H7 Canada
phone: (604) 684-7378
fax: (604) 684-1312