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Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Volume 92 - No. 28
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Moly price drop results in employee layoffs at Endako Mine. p9
www.ldnews.net
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$1.34 HST inc.
Walk of Hope held to raise awareness in the search for Perry Sebastian Jr. p9
Pinnacle Pellet’s air quality questioned again Air quality issues discussed at Regional District of Bulkley Nechako REBECCA BILLARD Air quality issues are still plaguing Pinnacle Pellet's Burns Lake plant more than a year after start up. The plant's emissions were recently discussed by the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako (RDBN) board members during a presentation on air quality by Ben Weinstein, air quality meteorologist for the Ministry of Environment and Bulkley Valley Airshed Management Society member. Tom Greenaway, RDBN's director of area C, Fort St. James rural, asked Weinstein for an update on Pinnacle Pellet's commission process. "Pinnacle Pellet's air quality is terrible ... when is this going to be fixed up?" Greenaway asked. Weinstein said Pinnacle Pellet has been having issues, which has resulted in reduced air quality. "They have struggled for a year with start up issues and new dryers they had installed were not working and were gumming up the process with tar," he said. As reported in the Lakes District News edition of April 4, 2012, Lorne Davies, Pinnacle Pellet's corporate safety and environmental officer said the commissioning process had taken a lot longer than expected. He said the company was pioneering the use of new technology at the plant and had run into issues that are being corrected. Davies explained that during 2009-2010 the Ministry of Environment imposed new regulations to increase emission controls for new plants. He said because of this, Pinnacle Pellet's Burns Lake plant, which to his understanding is the first pellet plant to come online in Northern B.C. after the new regulations, installed a high efficiency cyclone system, in More on page 5 ...
Rebecca Billard photo
Thick plumes of blue smoke has been billowing from Pinnacle Pellet’s Burns Lake plant. The issue was discussed by the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako board last week where Ben Weinstein, Ministry of Environment meteorologist said there has been very high PM emissions coming from the plant.
Still no word from Comfor Management board President Beach says he cannot elaborate on why the two employees were released REBECCA BILLARD There is still no information coming forward from the Comfor Management Services Ltd. (CMSL) board of directors following the events of two weeks ago. As reported in the Lakes District News edition of June 27, 2012, two long term senior
employees were released from the company to make way for company restructuring. Lakes District News later learned the employees released were Michael Riis-Christianson, CMSL's executive assistant and Burns Lake Community Forest general manager Dawn Stronstad. The Burns Lake RCMP were called to the CMSL office for an employee disturbance on
June 21, 2012, however no further explanation has been provided by the board about the incident. A scheduled CMSL board meeting was closed to the public following the incident and CMSL president Quentin Beach said he is unsure of when the next public meeting will be. Beach has said he cannot elaborate on why
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the two employees were released. He also said local groups and societies that CMSL was helping out with in-kind donations and by keeping their financials in order are okay for the interim. According to Beach, Burns Lake Tragedy Fund Society, Lakes Outdoor Recreation Society [LORS] and the Lakes District Film More on page 5 ...
Trades Preparation
Focus on the skills you’ll need to enter a trades program! July 16 to August 3 – Tuesdays and Wednesdays It’s free!
Of¿ce hours Mon. – Thurs. 10am to 3pm Closed lunch
Phone: 250.692.1700 • Fax: 250.692.1750 • Toll Free: 1.866.692.1943 545 Highway 16 West • PO Box 5000, Burns Lake, BC • V0J 1E0 Email: lksdist@cnc.bc.ca • Website: www.cnc.bc.ca/lakesdistrict