FORT ST. JOHN, British Columbia, Canada, July 7, 2000 (ENS) - Two companies planning to build a mill in Fort St. John, northern British Columbia, face opposition even before they have finalized building plans for an environmental review.

Late last month Oregon based Louisiana Pacific Corporation and B.C. based Slocan Forest Products Ltd. announced a joint venture to build and operate an oriented strand board (OSB) mill.

The companies are close to finalizing and submitting site plans to B.C.'s Environmental Assessment Office for approval, a process that takes several months of environmental review and public consultation.

On Wednesday, about 120 people in this community of 15,000 met to discuss opposition tactics to the plant's proposed location in an industrial park.

They are concerned that the methods used to manufacture OSB, an alternative to plywood used in construction, threaten their health and the environment. They are also fearful of Lousiana Pacific's history of legal proceedings, which includes grand jury indictment for fraud and environmental violations.

Gray Jones of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee attended the meeting. He calls OSB manufacture a notoriously toxic process. "The phenol formaldehyde and other chemicals used as binding and gluing agents are mixed with wood chips in a toxic stew to make the wafer boards," said Jones.

"Vapors and residues are released into the environment causing asthma, eczema, skin lesions, and lingering flu and cold like symptoms - all of which have been documented where these plants are found."

Residents like Jill Stromsmoe argue that the proposed site for the mill, nine blocks from an elementary school, next to an Alberta Wheat Pool store and close to the town's airport, is ill suited.

"Location is our biggest concern," said Stromsmoe. "The airport is our only access to emergency medical treatment in the winter and we don't know what effect the mill's steam particulates will have on the dew point and whether it will cause more fog.

"We fear toxic emissions or an industrial accident in a location surrounded by homes, stables and schools."

Jones and Stromsmoe said they had no faith in Lousiana Pacific.

"Louisiana Pacific has been criminally convicted of fraud and serious environmental violations, and has been forced into paying hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements to States and individuals from Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Alabama, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Texas," said Jones.

Lousiana Pacific's corporate environmental affairs manager David Harvey admitted the company's environmental track record had been questionable.

In 1998 Lousiana Pacific pled guilty to fraud and environmental crimes in a federal court in Denver, Colorado. The company was charged in 1995 under the Clean Air Act with tampering with air pollution monitoring devices, falsifying reports made to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and providing false information to EPA inspectors. The company was fined $37 million, the largest fine in the 28 year history of the Clean Air Act.

In 1993, the company paid $11 million in fines to the EPA and was required to install an additional $70 million in pollution control equipment to its waferboard plant near Denver. The company paid $2.9 million to four families that left their homes, allegedly as a result of the factory's air pollution problem.

In 1995, the company pled guilty to 14 criminal violations against its subsidiary company Ketchikan Pulp of intentionally polluting the waters of Southeast Alaska. The firm agreed to pay $3 million in criminal fines and $3.11 million in civil fines.

Harvey said that Lousiana Pacific's environmental management team, installed after company chairman Harry Merlo was fired in 1995, had restored the company as a leader in the forest product industry with good environmental practices to match.

"We can't deny the problems of the past but a lot of those problems originated 10 or more years ago," said Harvey. "We are being upfront and honest and B.C.'s environmental review process is one of the most stringent in Canada."

Harvey said any kind of manufacturing process emits some steam but he doubted whether the emissions from a plant the size proposed for Fort St. John could affect the town's weather. "It's roughly the size of a three or four story warehouse - not something that dominates the landscape."

"The industrial park is zoned for this kind of use. Moving it out of town is problematic because agricultural land is so scarce," he added.

Ike Barber, chairman and CEO of Slocan Forest Products, denied any health risks associated with OSB manufacture. "I have a son and three grandchildren working in our OSB plant in Fort Nelson," said Barber.

"Why would I be so dumb as to risk their health. That's the acid test for credibility as to whether we are making a toxic product.

"The review is when all these concerns can be raised and addressed in the public arena," Barber said. "That review process will be initiated in a matter of days and the application in a matter or months." Error: Unable to read footer file.