B.C. OSB Mill Given Green Light On MDI

Despite local opposition, Peace Valley Oriented Strand Board (OSB) in Fort St. John has been granted an amendment to its Environmental Certificate to allow the use of a controversial chemical in its manufacturing process. The plant is currently only permitted to use phenol formaldehyde resin as an adhesive — a condition on its original certificate.

The Louisiana-Pacific Ltd. (LP) plant applied for the amendment to use methylene diphenyl diisocyanate, or MDI, at its factory for the production of its particleboard items in spring 2014. Before that, it had applied to the Ministry of the Environment for an amendment to its Discharge Authorization Permit to use MDI at the plant in late fall 2012.

MDI would be incorporated as a resin into the core of the oriented strand board before it undergoes the pressing process. During that process, MDI would be discharged from the press vent stack.

The news of the certificate’s amendment was met with disdain from at least one Baldonnel resident, Sandra Cushway, whose 2013 Freedom of Information request revealed “hundreds of pages” of non-compliance to environmental regulations with Peace Valley OSB.

Peace Valley OSB is now following up on its discharge permit from the Ministry of Environment to have it altered to include MDI emissions.

From Alaska Highway News: alaskahighwaynews.ca.