Proceedings - Teaching and Learning Centre - Simon Fraser ...

Fraser River Action Plan 3rd Research Workshop
TSS and BOD loadings appeared to have decreased in five of the seven mills while production increased or
remained relatively constant in all seven mills. Additional analysis of pulp mill effluent data are presented in the
table below:
Table 1 - Pulp Mill Parameter % Changes from 1989 to 1995
Mill Name % Reduction - BOD % Reduction - TSS % Increase -
Loading
Loading
Production
Canadian Forest Products -30 -18 15
Cariboo Pulp and Paper 48 84 -4
Crown Packaging 42 12 6
Northwood Pulp and
Timber
10 21 28
Quesnel River Pulp Co. 48 2 10
Scott Paper Ltd. +29 42 -10
Weyerhauser (Kamloops) -13 63 4
A preliminary assessment of pulp mill effluent data retrieved from Envirodat indicated there may have been a
reduction of up to 30% in TSS and a 20% reduction in BOD from December 1988 to November 1995.
Concurrently, there may have been an increase in pulp production of up to 7% in the mills for the same time
span.
Envirodat and WWDAT will be used to estimate the pollutant load from industrial discharges for the period of
1990 to 1998. As most waste management program permit holders, with the exception of the pulp and paper
industry, are only required to monitor BOD, TSS and flow, quantitative assessment of temporal trends will only
be performed for relatively few parameters (i.e., flow, BOD, TSS, production, dioxins and furans). Data stored
in Envirodat can be used by decision makers and researchers to make more informed choices in the management
of the Fraser River basin.
Efforts are currently being made to link Envirodat with Arcview, a geographic information system (GIS), to
produce a tool which will be able to locate point source discharges and their associated loadings. The resulting
tool will be able to demonstrate temporal loading changes and the geographic differences in pollutant loadings
throughout the Fraser River basin. Concurrently, efforts are being made to collect more industrial effluent
monitoring data from provincial government regional offices to provide a more complete view of industrial
pollutant loadings to the Fraser River.
The Fraser River Point Source Inventory is an inventory of all municipal and industrial point source effluent
discharges authorized under Waste Management Permit within the Fraser basin. FRPSI includes information on
the discharge name, location, Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code, wastewater treatment type,
authorized flow rates, concentration and toxicity limits.
Data for FRPSI were obtained from B.C. Ministry of Environment, Land and Parks (MOELP) databases as well
as the Federal Facilities Environmental Activities Database (FFEAD). Permit listings were compiled for each
MOELP regional office and missing data were photocopied and entered manually. Data were divided
geographically into four regions and 13 sub-basins of the Fraser basin in order to provide a more meaningful
geographic estimation of pollutant loadings.
Data summaries can be generated by region, sub-basin, key parameters and major SIC codes. It should be noted
that results from FRPSI are not actual pollutant loadings but the maximum allowable loadings as defined in
provincial waste permits.
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