Board quashes Domtar appeal: project free to move ahead

Calling concerns about Domtar’s revised emissions system “speculative and remote,” B.C.’s Environmental Appeal Board rejected a bid to deny the corporation a new emissions permit.

The decision from the Environmental Appeal Board was released Wednesday.

Shuswap-Thompson Organic Producers Association – comprising organic farmers -- appealed a Ministry of Environment permit given to the corporation in October last year. The group argued the revised permit would harm the City’s Tournament Capital image, worsen air quality and harm the environment.

In October the ministry gave Domtar more time to meet stringent emission reduction rules. It also allowed the corporation to introduce valley-level stacks that critics say will worsen pollution.

But the appeal board dismissed the appeal in its preliminary stage, without a public hearing. Among its findings:

- the producers association did not prove it is a “person aggrieved” under the act because it provided insufficient evidence.

- only one of the members was located within 10 kilometres of the pulp mill.

- the association didn’t provide evidence that its members would be harmed by the valley-level discharge, something the board noted as “the only aspect of the amendments that may result in a change that is detrimental.”

- concerns about plant growth and that consumers won’t shop at the farmers’ market due to emissions “are either too speculative or too remote…”

- concerns don’t need to be heard in a public hearing because there was ample public consultation and debate last year.

Domtar Corp. is awaiting approvals by Natural Resources Canada on $143 million in proposed works made possible by Ottawa's green transformation program that pays mills to make conservation improvements. The Kamloops mill will receive the bulk of proposed capital spending, part of which includes the environmental upgrades.

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