Spectra Energy’s Pine River gas plant in northeast B.C. is far and away the province’s biggest single emitter of major air pollutants, according to a Vancouver Sun analysis of Environment Canada’s annual national pollutant release inventory.

The Chetwynd-area plant reported 12,021 tonnes of major air pollutants in 2013 — more than twice its closest industrial competitor, Rio Tinto Alcan aluminum smelter in Kitimat, at 5,820 tonnes.

Pollutants covered in The Sun’s analysis include nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, (smog producing) volatile organic compounds, and particulate matter of 2.5 microns or less, a size that can settle in the lungs and cause respiratory problems.

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Spectra’s McMahon gas plant in Taylor ranks seventh on the air-pollution list at 3,043 tonnes and its Fort Nelson gas plant 11th at 2,716 tonnes.

The familiar piles of yellow sulphur on the Vancouver harbour-front are a byproduct of the processing of natural gas from the northeast. About 90 per cent of air pollution from the Pine River plant is sulphur dioxide.

Based on the Environment Canada data, The Sun has created an interactive map at vancouversun.com showing the location of B.C.’s largest industrial polluters, including a breakdown of the types of pollutants each facility emits.

Francis Ries, a senior air-quality project engineer for Metro Vancouver who assisted in The Sun’s data analysis, said readers may be surprised at the amount of air pollution generated by the natural gas industry. “The forest of dots in the northeast is pretty striking,” he commented.

In Metro Vancouver, the biggest air polluter is the Delta cement plant of Lehigh Hanson Materials Ltd. at 2,216 tonnes — 90 per cent of that is nitrogen oxides. Lehigh Hanson, whose parent company is HeidelbergCement, is on a shortlist to use its cement kiln as a waste-to-energy facility for Metro Vancouver.

The news came as a shock to Delta Mayor Lois Jackson, former chair of the Metro Vancouver board, who said she’d have staff look into the matter.

“Is it really?” she said. “I thought it would be the Vancouver dump. That’s amazing.”

Lehigh environmental manager Jasper van de Wetering said the process of creating cement from shale and limestone requires temperatures of up to about 1,400 degrees Celsius, which results in the release of nitrogen oxides. He said the plant stands out because there are not a lot of major industrial operations in the region, adding it complies with Metro Vancouver pollution requirements.

Chevron Canada’s Burnaby refinery emitted 852 tonnes of major air pollutants, Metro Vancouver’s waste-to-energy facility in Burnaby at 698 tonnes, Burrard Products Terminal (Suncor Energy Products Partnership) in Port Moody, 391 tonnes, and Richmond Plywood Operations, 113 tonnes.

Strangely absent from the region’s list of top polluters is Lafarge Canada’s Richmond cement plant on No. 9 Road in Richmond. The operation reported 1,959 tonnes of air pollutants in 2012, based on The Sun’s analysis, but just 25 tonnes in 2013.

Lafarge spokeswoman Jennifer Lewis confirmed a mistake had been made and that a revised pollutant release report had been submitted to the national database.

That discrepancy hints at an issue with the national pollutant release inventory.

Industries are required to report data on some 300 pollutants where they meet the minimum threshold, Ries said, but the federal government lacks the staff to ensure accurate reporting.

“There’s not a lot of verification or oversight of the numbers,” he said.

Ries said the likelihood of accurate reporting generally increases with larger polluters, since they are also likely to be governed by pollution restrictions from the province or Metro Vancouver.

“I’d absolutely say that’s true. People are legally bound to report to NPRI but it is unlikely someone is going to shut them down if they don’t get it right. However, if they exceed a permit or don’t report correctly or completely, they can be shut down.”

He added: “Even the highest emitting facilities are likely operating in compliance with their provincial or Metro Vancouver permit requirements.”

While pollution measurements from an industrial stack are relatively straightforward, the data does not account for “fugitive emissions” of which there can be plenty in the natural gas industry, both in pipelines and at processing plants, Ries noted.

Spectra Energy vice-president of external affairs Gary Weilinger said the company “meets or exceeds” provincial air pollution standards.

To put the pollutants into perspective, he added, the three plants produce enough natural gas to meet the combined day-to-day demands of B.C., Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

The Pine River plant was specifically built on a mountaintop outside of Chetwynd to reduce potential for pollution to cause problems in the community. Pollutants are “broadly and widely dispersed” and are causing no significant impact, Weilinger said from Calgary.

Differences in the three plants are a reflection of the volume and nature of the natural gas each plant processes, he said, noting the Pine River plant is especially high in hydrogen sulphide.

Communications officer David Karn released a statement on behalf of the Ministry of Environment saying that within the last five years, the Pine River plant has had five exceedances related to sulphur dioxide and the McMahon plant three. “These exceedances were within reasonable ranges, and any issues were quickly dealt with. To date, no enforcement has taken place ...”

Spectra is not the only industrial operator in Taylor — a community in the Peace River valley — and is participating in a regional air-quality review with the province, he added.

While the national pollutant release inventory does not tally greenhouses gases, B.C. Ministry of Environment greenhouse gas emissions data for 2013 reveal that Spectra Energy operations hold four of the top-10 spots — including its Fort Nelson gas plant, highest at 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

The Sun’s analysis of the federal inventory data included two water-pollution categories based on whether pollutants contributed to eutrophication. Through this process, excessive nutrients cause a dense growth of algae and plant life leading to the death of animal life from lack of oxygen.

The Sun created the two categories because eutrophying pollutants are released in enormous quantities and would have obscured the other pollutants. As well, eutrophying pollutants are not directly harmful to health.

The biggest emitters of major eutrophying water pollutants are waste-treatment facilities, primarily ammonia and to a lesser extent phosphorus and nitrates. Metro Vancouver’s Annacis Island and Iona Island treatment plants dwarfed the list at 6,058 and 4,362 tonnes, respectively.

Under the case of major non-eutrophying water pollutants, Prince George Pulp and Paper and Intercontinental Pulp Mills topped the list at 95.9 tonnes, mostly “total reduced sulphur” and manganese.

When it comes to toxic metal releases to air, water and soil, the Trail operations of Teck Metals Ltd. topped the list at 6,365 kilograms, mostly lead, selenium and arsenic.

The next four spots on the list were claimed by Teck coal operations in southeast B.C., including 5,483 kilograms at Fording River, 4,223 kilograms at Greenhills, 3,092 kilograms at Line Creek, and 2,317 kilograms at Elkview — the vast majority of that selenium, a naturally occurring element released during extraction of the coal.

The national pollution data is for 2013, the most recent year for which Environment Canada has released information.

The four major pollutants covered in The Sun’s analysis are contained within an air-pollutant group created by national pollutant release inventory.

The Sun removed carbon monoxide from the group since it is no longer a major health concern, due in large part to catalytic converters on motor vehicles. Measurement of carbon monoxide is also used as an indicator of industrial efficiency, Ries said. Larger particulate matter posing less of a health risk is also excluded.

Ries noted that in 2012 industrial point sources represented about 44 per cent of the total human-generated emissions of the four pollutants analyzed by The Sun, transportation sources 41 per cent, and the remaining 15 per cent space heating, agriculture and other minor sources.

In terms of B.C.’s total greenhouse gas emissions of 61.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2012, transportation represented about 40 per cent, point sources 31 per cent and other categories 29 per cent.

“The point is that industrial point sources are not the only big sources of air pollution and greenhouse gases in B.C.,” Ries concluded.

lpynn@vancouversun.com