Herewith a copy of a letter to AV Times, Sunday pm---


While the revelations regarding excessive carbon monoxide content in the flue gases produced by the Co-gen plant at Campbell River cause understandable concern, the attitude to that concern shown by none other than the assistant Regional Waste Manager for B.C., Mr Ron Bollans, is much more worrying. This plant is described as being likely to produce "ten times more CO than the plant at Sumass", over the U.S -Canada border which is causing much protest in the lower mainland at the present time. It is reckoned that it will spew out nineteen times more CO than the existing plant near Port Moody---a plant which generates FOUR TIMES the power projected for the Campbell River installation! Mr Bollans' reaction to public concern is to plead monetary cost factors; scrubbers and other toxicity control devices would cost "millions of dollars", it seems. That such casual disregard for health and general environmental effects can be so patronisingly used to allay public concerns by a man in Mr Bollans' position boggles the mind. He makes the dubious point that "pollutants will be easily dispersed" as "Elk Falls is not in an area enclosed by mountains".

So?---Where are these pollutants "dispersed" to? It's o.k., seemingly, as long as the good folks of Elk Falls can be assured that their plant will add to the general pollution in the atmosphere, but not noticeably increase the poisons around their own homes! The presence of carbon monoxide in excess in flue gases is a perfectly solvable engineering problem--either in a new plant or in the "polluting boilers" which are being made redundant and conveniently used as a mitigating factor where the pollutants from the new plant are concerned. The plain truth is that if the cost of safety is a critical factor in ensuring the "economic viability" of this plant, then it should never have been built. Natural gas is, indeed, a much "cleaner" fuel than other hydro-carbons, but its combustion nevertheless results in residues of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide [in inefficient operation], sulphuric acid, and an amazing amount of water vapour. In fact the cubic volume of water produced--in the form of steam-- is several volumes greater than the actual gas input. In view of the fact that, unlike the situation at Elk Falls, Port Alberni DOES have a surround of mountains, and is already subject to "inversions" in the atmosphere, the pollutant products will not "disperse" too easily, it is to be hoped that very great care and attention is given to installation of chemical scrubbers and steam condensers, and the main cost element considered will be that of public and environmental health. Should our local governance be satisfied with less, I dread to think what kind of calamity could be in store should Alcan arrive in the inlet and are allowed to cut costs in building a plant which is a potential giant in the pollution stakes compared to a co-gen installation.
Bobby Rogerson