(sixmountains.ca photo)
BC compliance-and-enforcement report on Crofton mill violations only the latest in a long history of environmental issues
The industrial site has been dogged by complaints, including from Prince Phillip, since opening in 1957
A provincial compliance-and-enforcement report, issued just one month after Domtar’s Crofton pulp mill ceased production, is the latest in a slew of environmental issues that have dogged the industrial operation for generations.
The Ministry of Environment report cites the venting of gases “directly into the environment,” not keeping equipment “in good working order,” inadequate air-quality monitoring and record keeping, and failure to report problems in a timely manner.
The report is a reminder that while the Crofton mill has served as an important source of tax revenue and good-paying jobs, the operation has also had its share of environmental problems.
The report is dated Feb. 13, 2026, and covers the nine-month period ending Sept. 30, 2025.
But water and air-pollution issues, including releases of smelly sulphur compounds, have lingered since the $38-million Crofton mill opened on Dec. 17, 1957, during the post-Second World War industrial boom.
(sixmountains.ca photo)
The Times Colonist heralded the occasion with the headline: ‘Wheels Turning For First Time at Crofton Mill.’
A chorus of public complaints followed.
In a March 1958 article in the Ladysmith-Chemainus Chronicle the mill manager said that sulphur compounds may smell like “rotten cabbage or bad eggs” but are not harmful to inhale.
“A completely odorless kraft mill is by no means an impossibility in the future,” said John R. Grieve of BC Forest Products Ltd. “At the moment, however, a kraft mill in the community means you will have a smell.”
The article went on to state that while the pulp mill odor was somewhat of an “unfavorable contribution” to Crofton and the surrounding area, there was a “credit side to the ledger.”
That included the creation of about 300 jobs, taxes, and a policy of buying local where possible.
“I am not going to suggest the pulp mill’s contributions outweigh the minus ones,” Grieve said. “That is for you people to decide.”
(NOTE: In 1958, former Social Credit forests minister Robert Summers received a five-year prison sentence for bribery and conspiracy related to granting a forest management licence to BC Forest Products Ltd. in 1955, a decision that ensured supply for the company's Crofton mill.)
Another 1958 article in the Nanaimo Daily News spoke of Cowichan Valley residents being plagued by “smoke and odors” from the Crofton mill.
One resident, Angus Campbell, described as a "prominent industrialist" living at Quamichan Lake, went so far as to sue the mill in 1958 in BC Supreme Court, arguing the odours posed a nuisance and lowered property values. He withdrew his law suit in 1959 citing mill improvements.
A decade later, a 1970 headline in the Nanaimo Free Press read: ‘Pulp Mill Blamed Air, Sea Pollution.’ At a meeting organized by the Society for Pollution and Environmental Control, citizens complained of pulp fibre in the ocean, spillage of wood chips, and fly-ash fallout.
In 1971, during a royal visit to BC, Prince Phillip remarked of the Crofton mill's unpleasant smell that someone should "put a sock in it."
And in the late 1980s and early 1990s, pulp mills became a leading environmental target due to the release of chlorinated dioxins and furans—persistent organic pollutants (POPs) that worked their way into the food chain with troubling consequences.
Exposure to POPs has been linked to a range of toxic effects in human and non-human animals, including reproductive and developmental problems, immune-system damage, hormonal changes, and cancer.
Crofton came under special scrutiny after researchers found high levels of POPs in nesting great blue herons at Shoal Island, next to the mill. The once-thriving colony had an estimated 64 breeding pairs before falling silent in 1987, eggs abandoned in nests or found on the ground beneath the colony.
(Great blue heron photos by John Gordon ... J Tyerman)
Scientists immediately suspected pollution from the pulp mill.
In 1992, Canada adopted regulations to reduce pulp emissions of POPs to non-detectable levels. The BC government enacted its own laws that same year providing a 10-year staged process to eliminate POPs from effluent. (https://hakaimagazine.com/features/the-price-of-paper/)
In 2002, The Vancouver Sun reported that the Crofton mill had made the province’s non-compliance list of polluters nine times without being taken to court once. The company said it spent more than $30 million over the prior two years on environmental improvements to operations such as boilers, odour emissions and water filtration.
And in 2004, rock legends Randy Bachman and Neil Young headlined a clean-air benefit concert in North Cowichan. At that time, Norske owned the mill.
A research paper by Dalhousie University and the Nova Scotia Department of Environment and Climate Change, published in 2022, concluded that the pulp and paper industry is a major contributor to water and air pollution globally and an intensive consumer of energy.
And an analysis of the National Pollutant Release Inventory — a federal database compiled by Environment and Climate Change Canada — shows that the pulp and paper sector claimed seven of the top 10 spots on a federal list of industrial water polluters in BC in 2018 and four of the top 10 spots for air pollutants.
In terms of marine discharges of organic compounds and toxic metals in 2018, Crofton placed fifth among more than 50 sites in the province, sending 39 tonnes into the Salish Sea.
A 2019 Hatfield consulting report found that POPs from Crofton's past mill operations continue to be found in Dungeness crabs up to about 15 kilometers from the mill’s outfall. The federal government issued warnings related to consumption of the hepatopancreas, the crab’s digestive gland.
As for the latest compliance-and-enforcement report dated Feb. 13, 2026, the province found that: “NonCondensable Gases (NCGs) were vented directly into the environment on 37 occasions,” bypassing the authorized treatment systems, specifically the incineration and scrubbing processes.
On 10 occasions “works associated with the collection and treatment of NCGs were not maintained in good working order. These failures resulted in venting to the Emergency Stack and/or directly to the environment.”
(According to Control Instruments Corporation: "Non-condensable gases, usually referred to as Total Reduced Sulfur compounds or Dilute Vent Gases, are by-products of the kraft pulp process. These gases, mostly sulfurous, are extremely malodorous and flammable. Because venting non-condensable gases directly into the atmosphere is prohibited for environmental reasons, pulp mills usually collect and incinerate them in a waste or recovery boiler, a lime kiln, or an incinerator.”)
The provincial report also said the mill “failed to report all maintenance of works failures” and failed to fully meet air-quality monitoring requirements for particulates measuring 2.5 microns or less. These fine particulates can settle in the lungs and cause short and long-term health problems, including premature death.
No fines were issued for these violations.
However, in 2024, the province fined the Catalyst mill $25,500 for releasing about one million litres of toxic waste into the Salish Sea after an equipment failure in 2021.
Domtar did not respond to a request for comment on this article.
Read more: file:///Users/sixmountains/Downloads/2026-02-13_IR252308_Warning%20(1).pdf
(sixmountains.ca photo)
Is this the final such report, now that Crofton mill is shut down?
The Ministry of Environment told sixmountains.ca: “While mill operations have ceased, the facility is not closed and the permit remains active as there are still several active systems authorized under the permit (e.g., landfill, effluent treatment).
“We are in the final stages of inspection planning for fiscal year 2026/27.
“In accordance with our risk-based approach to inspection planning, it is too early in the process to say when this site will be prioritized for inspection.”
North Cowichan Mayor Rob Douglas has established a Mill Closure Response Working Group to "support impacted workers and families and to stabilize the local economy following the closure of the Crofton pulp mill and the more recent curtailment of operations at the Chemainus sawmill through 2026."
Municipal taxpayers are taking a hit of about $800,000 in 2026 alone as a result of the mill closure. Read more: https://cowichanvalleycitizen.com/2025/12/17/north-cowichan-expects-to-lose-800000-in-taxes-in-2026-due-to-crofton-mill-closure/
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— Larry Pynn, April 7, 2026
