How are pulp and paper mills in British Columbia mitigating their environmental impacts?
• There are presently 25 pulp and paper mills in British Columbia. Nine of these mills discharge into coastal waters, 13 into inland water bodies, two into municipal sewage systems and one mill evaporates effluent. • Effluent from mills that do not treat or have minimal treatment, contains high levels of AOX, making it acutely toxic. Acute toxicity kills fish and other species when they come in contact with the effluent. • Since the early 1990s pulp and paper mills in British Columbia have been adopting new technology that uses chlorine dioxide instead of elemental chlorine to bleach pulp. Mills that are elemental chlorine free (ECF) produce about one tenth the amount of AOX as they had when elemental chlorine was used. • Mills that use ECF technology and mills that are totally chlorine free still release organic compounds (i.e., black liquor). Black liquor contains the natural chemicals found in wood that has been separated from the wood fibre during the pulp process. When these chemi
