Pollution from the Gold River Pulp Mill continues to effect Muchalaht Inlet a quarter century after the closure of the facility – but the degree that marine life is contaminated remains to be determined.
Since 1995 Muchalaht Inlet has been closed for commercial crab harvesting due to concerns over contaminants that first raised alarm with DFO five years earlier. Non-commercial crabbing is permitted under federal regulations, but with an advisory of limited consumption due to continued concerns over the health of the shellfish in the waters where the Gold River meets Muchalaht Bay. Fisheries and Oceans Canada advises that no more than 70 grams of crab hepatopancreas, an organ in the shellfish used for digestion and detoxification, be eaten in a week.
But it’s currently unknown how badly - if at all - crab in the area are contaminated, explained Lisa Loseto, a research scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. On June 11 she presented the situation to the Nuu-chah-nulth Council of Ha’wiih Forum on Fisheries.
With the hope of eventually gaining up-to-date data, Loseto outlined to the forum how monitoring was conducted in Muchalaht Inlet for 10 years, starting in 1988. Elevated levels of dioxin were found In Dungeness crab, which is a chemical produced in pulp and paper manufacturing, as well as from the incineration of plastics and volcanic eruptions. In 1990 dioxin levels sharply peaked in the inlet’s monitoring sites located next to the mill, then dropped in the years after, coinciding with improvements in controlling pulp mill pollution.
As a research scientist with DFO, Loseto explained that she has some funding to conduct samples of Dungeness crabs in the area. She plans to seek more support from the department to further investigate the extent of contamination in Muchalaht Inlet.
“To measure dioxins it’s about $700 a sample,” she said. “With the little money I have, I was going to look at running 10 samples. If I get more money, then I’ll try to do more and get the sediments.”
“I do think by measuring the sediments we can get a sense of much is still there,” added Loseto.
Her plan received support from the Council of Ha’wiih, including Mowachaht/Muchalaht Tyee Ha’wilth Mike Maquinna.
“Though the mill has been closed for a while, it’s our understanding that there’s a natural process of the chemicals being flushed out by itself,” he said. “Hopefully that’s happened, but there’s no certainly of knowing if it has happened or is happening.”
“It doesn’t go anywhere for a long time,” added the chief. “We’re wondering where it’s being flushed out to.”
Maquinna’s community lived next to the pulp mill for three decades on the Ahaminaquus reserve at Muchalaht Bay. When the newly constructed pulp mill was just starting operations in 1966, the Mowachaht/Muchalaht’s main community began its relocation from the ancestral village of Yuquot on Nootka Island to Ahaminaquus, where economic opportunity and formal education were believed to be more accessible for the First Nation.
Meanwhile the town of Gold River was being established 13 kilometres north to house workers at the pulp mill, away from the pollution that proved to be a health concern for the Mowachaht/Muchalaht. After years of living under towering plumes of smoke, in 1996 the First Nation’s main reserve was moved again, this time to Tsaxana north of Gold River, where it remains today.
A Ha-Shilth-Sa article from May 9, 1996 notes why those who had endured life at Ahaminaquus were given priority to select lots on the newly established Tsaxana location.
“The ones living at [Ahaminaquus] were the priority because of health and living conditions,” said Mowachaht/Muchalaht council spokesperson Larry Andrews in the article. “It was very demoralizing there because there was no room for growth.”
The Gold River Pulp Mill was built by the Tahsis Company in the mid 1960s, taking advantage of its location within a tree farm licence with deep-water access via Muchalaht Inlet to international markets. A 1967 brochure from the Tahsis Company announcing the mill’s grand opening states that pollution control was a “primary consideration” in building the facility, and that six per cent of its cost was spent in “assuring that the air and waters in the vicinity are not seriously harmed by wastes from the mill.”
The company stated that extra stages of cleaning and screening were installed, and that the mill was designed to collect waste for re-use or sale rather than being dumped.
“Great care is taken with the disposal of the mill’s effluent,” reads the brochure, noting that this liquid was sent through a 1,700-foot tunnel into the main body of Muchalaht Inlet. “The effluent is carried deep beneath the surface and diffused so that it mixes in the natural sea water at a ratio considered safe by the federal Department of Fisheries, which has highly praised the Tahsis Company’s efforts to control pollution and protect marine life.”
“I worked in Gold River Pulp Mill for five years,” said Nuchatlaht Councillor Archie Little during the June fisheries meeting, which was hosted by his nation. “The outflow that they tunneled to put all of the waste in the inlet on the other side, it wasn’t close to the pulp mill, that was going 24-7. Black water just pouring out.”
