Greg Hammond knows the problems Peace Valley Oriented Strand Board has had in honouring its environmental commitments better than anyone.
He owns land directly south of the particleboard plant, and says his land has been flooded twice 鈥渢hat we know about鈥� with contaminated water, causing damage to the property.
鈥淭he land鈥檚 not the same,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he grass is not the same.鈥�
Due to the fruits of a long-delayed Freedom of Information request, a group now has the information to help explain why the land may have changed, and how Peace Valley OSB repeatedly ran into major problems with British Columbia鈥檚 environmental regulations while the land was changing.
In a packed gymnasium at Baldonnel School on Tuesday, Hammond joined concerned citizens including Sandra Cushway, who outlined her team鈥檚 analysis of 6,190 pages of documents related to the Peace Valley OSB mill in Baldonnel.
The trove of memos and other official reports shows that the company regularly flaunted the province鈥檚 environmental regulations, Cushway said, with no documented recourse from the B.C. Ministry of Environment.
The request for information was made by Cushway in January 2013 and the documents were delivered on Aug. 22. Included were all non-compliance documents associated with Peace Valley OSB from 2006 to the end of 2012. The ministry, however, failed to deliver data for 41 of the 84 months of compliance, without explanation. 聽
鈥淚 felt sick as I was going through it,鈥� admitted Cushway, who lives about 1.5 kilometres from the mill. She added that Peace Valley OSB had an 鈥渦ncountable鈥� number of non-compliance instances over the course of period she examined.
In one letter dated Feb. 12, 2008, Lindsay Sahaydak, then an environmental protection officer for the Ministry of Environment, outlined the previous year in which Peace Valley OSB鈥檚 dryer stack failed to comply with the province鈥檚 regulations for formaldehyde and air flow rate.
The company also tested out of compliance for particulate matter in the first three quarters of the same year. She requested 鈥渟pecific measures/ actions that Canfor-LP planned to undertake to bring formaldehyde levels in the dryer stack into compliance.鈥� (Peace Valley OSB was jointly owned by Canfor and the Louisiana-91原创 Corporation until Canfor sold its stake to LP for $77 million in May 2013.)
In another letter dated Nov. 10, 2008, Sahaydak warned Peace Valley OSB that its environmental data for 2007 was so incomplete that the entire set was useless. In the email to the company, she complained that more than 1,000 hours of data were missing due to instrument errors.
鈥淚t made it impossible to do any trend analysis or compare annual averages to other communities,鈥� she wrote to the company. 鈥淚n addition, the turnaround time for receiving the data requested by meteorologists is longer than desirable.鈥�
Sahaydak has since left the Ministry of Environment, and is now employed by Peace Valley OSB. She did not return phone calls from Alaska Highway News.
Particularly concerning from the documentation was a plan outlined on Oct. 31, 2012 to construct a diversion ditch on the south side of the mill property that would direct water from the company鈥檚 retention pond to the Swanson Lumber Road municipal ditch, which drains into the Peace River.
The retention pond containing contaminated water was ostensibly made to withstand 鈥�100 year floods,鈥� but Cushway says that between 2007 and 2011 there were at least three such floods. If another occurred, contaminated water from Peace Valley OSB retention pond could end up in the river.
Stakes are high for the company and the community. In January, Peace Valley OSB applied to the Ministry of Environment to use methylene diphenyl diisocyanate, or MDI, at its factory for the production of its particleboard items.
At issue for the community is whether or not the company can be trusted to use the poisonous chemical, given questions this group has raised about previous non-compliance and the fact that British Columbia does not have any laws currently on the books to regulate the air emission standards for the use of MDI.
鈥淏ased on the company鈥檚 non-compliance track record in the last seven years of documentation, we don鈥檛 trust them to have MDI. That鈥檚 the bottom line,鈥� said Cushway. 鈥淎nd MDI is a very serious chemical.鈥�
WorkSafeBC has flagged health risks associated with MDI, as has the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Ontario regulates the air emissions for the use of MDI.
Specifically, WorkSafeBC says that short term exposure to untreated MDI can cause asthma, dermatitis and irritation or burns to the eyes, nose and throat. Employers in British Columbia must ensure workers are not exposed to isocyanate above a certain level.
Art Bilodeau, safety manager for Peace Valley OSB, said MDI is commonly used throughout the industry. 鈥淓veryone else uses it. We鈥檙e the only ones that don鈥檛 use MDI to make OSB.鈥�
He noted that competitors to Peace Valley OSB use MDI. One of the companies, Tolko Industries, admitted to using MDI at its OSB plant in Saskatchewan. Another, Ainsworth Engineered, would not comment on this story because it is currently being acquired by LG, the Nashville, Tennessee-based parent company of Peace Valley OSB. 聽
Merritt Kline from the APA Engineered Wood Association said he was not aware of any adverse health consequences related to the use of MDI. 鈥淭he majority of OSB produced in North America includes some MDI in its core,鈥� he said.
But for the people of Baldonnel, it鈥檚 also an issue of trust.
鈥淎t the end of the day they just have a hard time telling the truth,鈥� said Hammond. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all about trust 鈥� plain and simple. When we look at the information that鈥檚 been gathered here, you have to ask the question, 鈥榗an you trust them?鈥� and if you rely on this factual information, I would say the answer is no.鈥�
The Environment Ministry could not comment on Peace Valley OSB鈥檚 MDI application by press time, nor would say how many companies in B.C. use MDI in a production process or how often the permit is granted.
