A wood pellet company in Smithers misleads the government and the general public into thinking that their future operations are sustainable and would improve air quality in Bulkley-Valley region.
Every year Bulkley-Valley experiences the smokey air resulting from thousands of unused slash piles being burned. These conditions are unhealthy and may result in serious lung & heart ailments.
The pellet mill proponent, NewPro, has told that the mill will help reduce “slash burning“ in the Smither’s area by using the slash to make the wood pellets. NewPro has applied for and received a permit amendment under the Environmental Management Act. Nevertheless, the slash burning did not decrease since 2018, the year when the mill was opened.
Len Vanderstar, the co-founder of Bulkley-Valley Clean Air Now, has mentioned that “We are extremely concerned at what has unfolded. Despite the company’s assertions, the slash burning continues and our airshed continues to be choked with smoke for months on end. Instead of chewing through slash, the local pellet mill is chewing through whole logs.”
This situation has gathered an opposition, such as Bulkley-Valley Clean Air Now and Conservation North. They have asked the government to suspend the pellet mill’s permit, as well as require the current owner of the mill - the United Kingdom’s Drax Group - to disclose the information about the usage of logs and logging slash. “We also want to see the Environmental Management Act amended so that it is clear that permits will be cancelled outright if companies make misleading claims in support of their applications,” says Vanderstar.
After receiving the amendment permit, NewPro’s ownership was transferred to Pinnacle Renewable Energy, and later on the ownership was again transferred to Drax. In North Yorkshire, England, Drax manages the world's largest facility for wood pellet consumption, a massive thermal electricity plant. This plant utilizes wood pellets as fuel, burning them to produce steam that powers the facility's turbines, generating electricity. Drax now has a near complete monopoly over the pellet mills in BC by owning 12 mills as of today.
The large quantities of logs are turned directly into wood pellets in Smithers, Quesnel, Houston, and Burns Lake, as shown by the data of BC government.
Len Vanderstar remarks, "It is evident that the Smithers pellet mill has not brought about a significant decrease in slash-burning within our airshed. Regrettably, slash-burning remains the primary and most detrimental source of air pollution in our valley."
Source - Press Release: BV Clean Air Now