The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
Biodiversity in Greater Sudbury lakes is making a strong comeback as air pollution has seen a steady decline since the ’60s.
The 2012 Vital Signs report from the Sudbury Community Foundation was launched Tuesday from the Vale Living with Lakes Centre. This year’s report, titled City of Lakes Edition, focused on environmental recovery and the flourishing biodiversity seen over the years as air pollution is reduced.
Dr. John Gunn, the director of the Living with Lakes Centre, outlined some of the key findings for the crowd of about 40 gathered at the centre. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions in Greater Sudbury are at one of their lowest levels ever, down from a record high in the 1960s when more SO2 was released in Sudbury than in Japan.
The SO2 killed off wildlife, made some lakes unusable and gave Sudbury a reputation it’s still trying to shake. Gunn said at some point, major polluters realized they could reduce emissions and save on their bottom line at the same time. That has led to a steady and sharp decline in SO2 emissions, and improved biodiversity in the region.
“(Reducing pollution) is a benefit to the companies, to the local societies. It’s good regulations that forced modernization and efficiencies, in the same way the auto industry benefited from regulations on use of gas,” Gunn said.
Since a lot of the pollution going in the air and then on the ground and in lakes is a product the companies could be using, it only made sense to them to recover those elements, said Gunn.
Angie Robson, Vale’s manager of corporate affairs for Ontario operations, said the next big project to come online is strictly an environmental project that should reduce SO2 emissions by another 90%.
“The crux of the project is that the S02 from the converters is going to be captured and sent to a new acid plant we’re building and converted to liquid sulfur dioxide that we’ll then sell to industry,” Robson said.
“Our operations are going to be slightly more expensive to run as a result, because we’ll have the new acid plant and infrastructure to be maintained,” Robson added.
With reduced pollution comes improved environmental health, improving Sudbury’s reputation and attracting more people and businesses to the region.
For the rest of this article, please go to the Sudbury Star website: http://www.thesudburystar.com/2012/10/03/sulphur-controls-paying-off-report