July 2000 logging in Whiteshell Provincial Park. Photo credit: Shelly Sandhu
OSB Plants Pollute
by Dave Fort
In September of 1994, the Manitoba government issued Louisiana Pacific (L-P) a 5,863 sq. kilometre Forest Man- agement License. The Clean Environment Commission (CEC) was ordered by the government to look at L-P's operation in two assessments: the first approved the mill, and the second determined the wood supply. Many citizens were surprised when the mill was approved before it was determined if there was adequate wood supply to feed the hungry L-P plant ca- pable of devouring 900,000 c3 per year.
Louisiana Pacific Corp., headquar- tered in Portland, Oregon, is the world's largest producer of oriented strand board (OSB). OSB is a plywood substitute pro- duced using highly toxic chemicals, in- cluding methylene biphenyl isocyanate, formaldehyde, and phenols in the process of binding chips into board. When heated, these toxic chemicals turn into polluting gases placing serious health risks on both local residents and workers.
It's no secret to those who have fol- lowed L-P's history that this company has a very poor environmental record. They have paid the largest civil penalty under any US environmental law. In Dawson Creek, BC, toxic gases such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen cya- nides, benzene and toluene, are being emitted 24 hours a day by an L-P OSB mill. Consequently health problems in the community are on the rise.
Up until last year in Manitoba, L-P created so much woodchip waste that it started showing up on riverbeds and on farmer's lots in surrounding areas. L-P has a responsibility to deal with this waste but has yet to complete building a burner that will solve the problem.
L-P claims to be harvesting fast- growing, non-controversial tree species such as poplar and white birch. Migra- tory Neotropical birds that frequent the Duck Mountain area depend on the unique species mix and age distribution of trees found only in these natural wild forests.
The L-P environmental impact as- sessment noted that Eastern Cougar are found in both the Duck and Riding Moun- tain areas. Eastern Cougar populations have collapsed because of habitat de- struction and some authorities believe this subspecies to be extinct in Manitoba.
L- P currently manages 871.7 sq. km. (61%) of Duck Mountain Provincial Park. This is roughly 15% of the company's total cutting area. It is baf- fling that a logging company that has al- ready created a bad name for itself in its homeland is given the right to "manage" natural resources in one of Manitoba's most cherished provincial parks.
