$5-million plan not soon enough for tourism operators in Pictou area
Northern Pulp will invest $5 million in equipment that will capture sulphur gas in emissions for incineration. (Monica Graham)
New technology at the Abercrombie Point pulp mill should make Pictou smell better within a couple of years.
After a study last year, Northern Pulp has decided to invest $5 million in equipment that will capture the sulphur gas component of emissions, and incinerate it. The sulphur is what causes the nose-wrinkling smell around the Pictou Harbour causeway and in the town itself.

The project should cut the smell by 70 per cent within two years, company spokesman Don Breen said Monday.
"That is great news, fantastic news," said Mike Emmett, proprietor of the Braeside Inn in Pictou. "That should be on the front page of every newspaper in the province."

Pulp mill emissions have a "tremendous effect" on his business, he said.
"If the wind is from the south, it hits us full on."
Although he’s never counted how often that happens, he’s been told it’s about 10 times a year. That’s too often for the Braeside Inn, because guests arriving with reservations often cancel and leave if the inn is in the path of the pulp mill’s emissions.
Emmett said visitors leave even when told the smell is temporary.

The smell also changes the minds of tourists who pass the pulp mill as they cross the causeway on their way to Pictou.
"They either keep going to another place, or they turn around and go somewhere else," Emmett said.
The sulphur smell affects all areas of Pictou County, but has a severe effect on the tourism business in the town of Pictou, he said.
The smell has a negative effect on property values and real estate sales as well as the tourist industry, and is probably not good for people’s health, Pictou Mayor Joe Hawes said.

"The smell is not here all the time, but when it’s here, it’s here," he said. "It turns people off. If it was eliminated, we’d likely get an influx of people because Pictou is a beautiful little town." The pulp mill was already scheduled to significantly reduce its emissions by 2013, Hawes said. But now it can be done sooner because a $75-million provincial loan to buy woodland, also announced Monday, freed up some funds, Hawes said.

"We’ll hold them to it," he said. "I’ll be monitoring that quite closely."
The air over Pictou Harbour may be getting cleaned up, but the water in Boat Harbour isn’t, the lands manager for Pictou Landing First Nation said.
The previous Conservative government committed two years ago to clean up and close the pulp mill’s effluent treatment facility at Boat Harbour, said Dan MacDonald. Band members then met regularly with government and company representatives to figure out the best way to proceed, but the issue wasn’t included in Monday’s announcement about reducing emissions, he said.

Natural Resources Minister John MacDonell confirmed that the NDP government had not made that commitment and, without checking the documentation, he wasn’t sure of its legal effect.

"They change governments and they change commitments. Everyone else’s agenda is being met, but there’s no money for this," MacDonald said.
The treatment facility should be on the same site as the pulp mill, he said.
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THE CHORNICLE HERALD.ca  -  USA . 2 marzo 2010