Pam Novak & Barry Rothfuss speak for the PCIC

The Protect the Chignecto Isthmus Coalition (PCIC) is calling on Tantramar Town Council to pass a resolution calling on the federal minister of the environment to review the environmental, health and social effects of the proposed 500 MW gas/diesel plant near Centre Village.

“That would be my only request to Tantramar Council to help us take the message to the federal government to ask the question, why isn’t this project being reviewed on the federal level?” says Barry Rothfuss, executive director of the Atlantic Wildlife Institute and spokesman for the PCIC.

He adds the project review should not be left to what he calls “an antiquated” provincial environmental impact assessment with much weaker standards than either the federal ones or standards set by the World Health Organization.

“Tantramar council is a public body and the federal minister can’t ignore them, but she can ignore private organizations like ours,” Rothfuss adds.

The 26 organizations that are members of the PCIC

Rothfuss and his partner Pam Novak says they’re also hoping to persuade Amherst Town Council and the Cumberland Regional Municipality to ask for a federal review because northern Nova Scotia would be directly affected if the gas plant gets built.

Rothfuss says research by Stantec, the consulting firm hired by the American company PROENERGY to conduct air quality assessments, shows that Amherst and a large area around it would be directly affected by emissions from the gas plant

He points to a Stantec table showing levels of nitrogen dioxide that are nearly three times higher than federal air quality standards and levels of fine particulate matter or microscopic soot particles that also exceed federal standards.

Gas plant emissions would also exceed Nova Scotia air quality standards, he says.

PCIC graphic showing prevailing winter winds that blow over the provincial border and the areas in both provinces most directly affected by gas plant emissions

Rothfuss and Novak say the 45 conditions New Brunswick imposed when it approved the gas/diesel plant last week are completely ineffective because most defer compliance until after the plant is actually built.

They point out, for example, that condition #37 authorizes the project to proceed without a liquid waste disposal plan deferring the requirement to secure a signed contract from a receiving treatment facility until an unspecified date “prior to the operational phase of the project.”

NB Power Vice President Brad Coady told Tantramar council in July that plans call for the wastewater to be trucked across the border into Nova Scotia for possible disposal in the Halifax area raising an additional transboundary environmental issue that Rothfuss says calls for federal review.

‘Disappointed, frustrated & angry’

“I am completely disappointed, frustrated and actually angry that they’re labelling this as an approval of the project when so many of the conditions don’t have to met beforehand,” Novak says.

“Whether it’s the environmental management plan which includes the fire safety plan, the air quality monitoring plan, all of these are significant to how this facility would be operating and the province is giving a basic approval without having those plans in place,” she adds.

Novak and Rothfuss say they’re especially concerned that final approvals will be left to the director of the EIA branch of the department of environment and local government without any public scrutiny.

They note that in its latest newsletter, PROENERGY is promising to establish a six-to-eight member community liaison committee (CLC) to provide a forum for discussion, but predict its members will be handpicked by the company.

“The only information the members will be getting is what PROENERGY is going to feed them,” Novak says. “So now, we’re at the point where the box has been closed for any public input, and any information going forward is only going to come from the company.”

More hours of operation

Rothfuss and Novak also note that PROENERGY and NB Power have said repeatedly that the gas plant would burn fuel only about 6 to 7% of the time because it would be operating 93% of the time in synchronous condensing mode which does not need fuel.

The province, however, in condition #11 permits the gas plant to burn fuel up to “17% of total operating hours calculated on a rolling 12-month basis.”

Rothfuss points out that amounts to 1,489 hours per year for this plant, while NB Power has said it has plans to build a second plant in the Scoudouc industrial park if it is needed.

“So, how can they say they’re committed to more renewable generation when the numbers of hours for this facility keep increasing?” Novak asks.

“This battle is far from over,” Rothfuss says, referring to the PCIC’s court case challenging the fairness of the Energy & Utility Board hearings that will be heard in November.

(The EUB approved the project in May.)

The federal Competition Bureau is also reviewing PCIC complaints alleging among other things that NB Power and PROENERGY used deceptive marketing in claiming an Indigenous financial or equity partnership in the project that did not exist.

“We have a lot of both public and legal avenues to pursue,” Rothfuss says, “and I think we’re on the right side of this issue.”