FOG BLOG SAINT JOHN LOG: IRVING'S WEST SIDE PAPER MILL TO GET WATER TREATMENT UPGRADE, STARTS SOON!

Environmental upgrades to Saint John pulp mill could start this summer........Less fresh water in, cleaner waste going out, Irving Pulp and Paper says...........Irving Pulp and Paper says it has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars modernizing its Saint John mill and is ready to spend $150 million more to reduce the mill's impact on the environment.

The company is proposing to build a new treatment operation that would further clean the effluent it discharges into the St. John River. That waste already meets tightened regulations introduced by Ottawa in the 1990s, says the company.

However, Canada's pulp and paper effluent regulations are going to tighten again, and Irving said this new system will be up to the task.

The project also fulfils a commitment that was made five years ago in court, after Irving Pulp and Paper was convicted of violating federal pollution laws by spilling effluent into the St. John River. ..............,,,,,,,,,A water-use reduction system is also being proposed that would cut the mill's freshwater consumption by more than half.

Currently, the mill is a huge drawer of water from the Spruce Lake watershed.

It comes into the mill through an underground pipe at a rate of about 136,800 cubic metres per day.

"If you split the water into the water that we actually use versus the water that is there just to cool things, yes, the total water use today is very high," said Mark Mosher, vice-president of pulp and paper. ,,,,,,,,,,Residents in West Saint John were supplied with treated water from the Spruce Lake watershed until 2017. The watershed is now only used as a source of raw industrial water for Irving Pulp and Paper and N.B. Power. J.D. Irving's share of the annual bill is $3.5 million. (Roger Cosman/CBC News)

Saint John water commissioner Brent McGovern said the mill uses more than twice as much water as everyone else in the city combined.

"Looking back at 2020 water consumption data for the Irving Pulp and Paper mill, it consumed approximately 101 megalitres or 101 million litres per day," said McGovern. 'To put that into context, the entire city, looking at all residential, commercial and institutional users for that year, used about 46.5 million litres per day.'

Mosher said the water used for cooling isn't polluted. It just flows through the system.