Group Calls for Probe of Nova Scotia Biomass Logging

[The for­est foot­print for a bio­mass incin­er­a­tor is mas­sive. Will be inter­est­ing to see if any probe is done in regards to this facil­i­ty. ‑Ed.]

-  by Erin Pot­tie, June 27, 2014, Cape Bre­ton Bureau

A Cape Bre­ton envi­ron­men­tal group is call­ing for an emer­gency review of har­vest­ing prac­tices at Nova Sco­tia Power’s bio­mass plant in Point Tupper.

On Fri­day, the Mar­ga­ree Envi­ron­men­tal Asso­ci­a­tion issued a let­ter to Pre­mier Stephen McNeil request­ing a delay in har­vest­ing to allow the province to exam­ine the plant’s wood supply.

Asso­ci­a­tion co-chair Neal Liv­ingston said the plant has shown itself to be a “vora­cious” con­sumer of wood fibre.

Not only is qual­i­ty mate­r­i­al being direct­ed to the plant, there is also too much for­est resource being cut, he added.

“You basi­cal­ly kin­da have a mon­ster there and it wants to be fed,” Liv­ingston said. “I think that rather than get it wrong and have it con­tin­ue to be a big­ger and big­ger prob­lem, it’s a real­ly good time to take a look at what’s going on here.”

NSP has said up to 650,000 tonnes of wood waste will be need­ed to run the plant per year.

The 60-megawatt pow­er gen­er­at­ing sta­tion, locat­ed in Rich­mond Coun­ty, is part of Nova Scotia’s plan to source 25 per cent of the province’s elec­tric­i­ty from renew­able sources by 2020.

But in recent months, busi­ness own­ers who rely on the for­est for a liv­ing have told The Chron­i­cle Her­ald that high-qual­i­ty hard­woods are mak­ing their way into the bio­mass plant.

Peter Chris­tiano, own­er of a fine-floor­ing com­pa­ny in Mid­dle Riv­er, Vic­to­ria Coun­ty, said the need for high-vol­ume, low-qual­i­ty fuel is also tak­ing away any incen­tive wood­lot own­ers and con­trac­tors had to har­vest these types of high­er-qual­i­ty wood.

“When you see those peo­ple start­ing not being able to get wood sup­ply and con­sid­er­ing clos­ing down their busi­ness­es, there’s a pret­ty clear indi­ca­tion there’s a prob­lem,” Liv­ingston said.

Adding to Livingston’s con­cerns are a recent round of clear-cut­ting, includ­ing an area along High­way 125, near North Sydney.

On Fri­day, NSP spokes­woman Neera Ritcey denied that qual­i­ty hard­woods are wind­ing up that the plant.

“We require our sup­pli­ers to fol­low strict con­di­tions on the bio­mass they sup­ply for use at the plant,” Ritcey said in an email. “We have checks and bal­ances in place to ensure rules are followed.”