Northern Pulp are proposing to pump 45,000,000 litres per day of TOXIC bleached kraft effluent into a very shallow Pictou Harbour which is connected to the Northumberland Strait.

The chemical composition of bleached pulp mill effluents is variable and not well characterized. Approximately 250 compounds have been identified in bleachery effluents but many more remain unidentified. Thus, substantial quantities of chlorinated organic compounds, both of known and of unknown composition, enter the Canadian aquatic environment from bleached pulp mill discharges.

Many of these chlorinated organic compounds are persistent and have been detected in water, sediments and biota up to 1400 km from bleached pulp mills outfalls. Compounds with low chlorine substitution degrade within hours to days, whereas highly chlorinated organic compounds may persist from days to weeks or longer. Persistence may be longer in winter, especially under ice. Some chlorinated organic compounds can be biologically degraded or transformed and transformation may lead to more persistent and bioaccumulative compounds.

Chloroveratroles, for example,transformation products of chloroguaiacols which are unique to bleached pulp mill effluents, are capable of accumulating in fish up to 25 000 times the concentration in water. Some other chlorinated organic compounds detected in biological tissues downstream of bleached pulp mills reflect repeated or long-term exposure rather than high bioaccumulative potentials.

Seventy-five percent of Canadian bleached pulp mills discharge effluents that are acutely lethal to fish, sometimes at concentrations as low as 3.2% effluent. A few individual chlorinated organic compounds in these effluents approach or surpass concentrations that cause mortalities in aquatic organisms ranging from algae to fish. Seventy percent of Canadian freshwater bleached pulp mills discharge whole effluent that, even upon dilution by the receiving waters, are at levels which cause chronic effects. Chronic effects, such as reproductive anomalies, biochemical changes, and behavioural alterations in aquatic organisms, have been observed in Canadian field studies at 0.5 to 5 % whole effluent.

Laboratory studies using individual chlorinated organic compounds that are commonly discharged from bleached pulp mills have demonstrated such chronic effects as deformities, and embryo and larval mortalities in fish. These chronic effects include significant irreversible factors which jeopardize the continuance of the species and the integrity of the ecosystem.

Thus, the levels of whole effluents discharged from Canadian bleached pulp mills to the aquatic environment and the resulting acute and chronic effects observed both in the field and in the laboratory combine to represent a significant risk to the aquatic ecosystem.

Based on these considerations, the Minister of Environment of Canada and the Minister of Health and Welfare have accepted the conclusion that the substance "Effluents from Pulp Mills using Bleaching" is entering the environment in a quantity or concentration or under conditions having an immediate and long-term harmful effects on the environment. This substance is therefore considered to be "toxic" as defined under Paragraph 11(a) of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.