Environment No resting on their green laurels
Ecology North praised for major impact on NWT
NNSL (OCT 16/96) - To judge the local impact of Ecology North, consider the global impact of Greenpeace.

Started the same year as Greenpeace -- 1971 -- Ecology North can be credited with helping develop the GNWT's first environmental legislation.

The Environmental Rights Act of 1990 provided the first legal protection for the Northern environment.

"My impression is that people in decision-making positions have a high regard for Ecology North," says Bob Bromley, co-founder of the organization.

Emery Paquin, director of the government's Environmental Protection Service, agrees.

He says the group has provided an invaluable public service over the years.

"Ecology North has been very effective in maintaining a high level of public interest in the quality of the environment," he says.

"Their biggest strength is the keen personal interest of its members," he says. "The enthusiasm they have always brought to events has been important."

Bromley and Helga Lurtz started the group out of a concern for the garbage around town and arsenic pollution around Giant and Con Mines.

Like Greenpeace, the founders of Ecology North didn't expect the organization to evolve into such an ambitious group, tackling dozens of issues.

"I had hoped it would be successful, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear they were doing so well," says Lurtz.

During the early 70s, the group help collect data for a study that found high levels of arsenic in soil, water, snow, fish, hair and nail samples from the Yellowknife area.

A subsequent government study on emissions reviewed arsenic levels from the Giant stack. This in turn, brought government discussion on emission regulations for the mine. Those regulations aren't in place yet, but are being finalized.

Despite Ecology North's somewhat quiet profile, the success of the group's volunteers lies in getting their message to the powers-that-be.

Over its 25-year history, the group has been active in discussions on the aborted Mackenzie valley and trans-arctic pipelines, plus the completed Norman Wells pipeline.

It's difficult to say how Ecology North influenced these projects, but Bromley says the group has always tried to have a voice in developments that effect the environment.

More recently, the group is responsible for starting a recycling program for Yellowknife, drafting a plan for conserving green spaces within the city, developing the city's first botanical gardens and taking part in hearings on the development of the BHP diamond mine.

The group was also instrumental in decreasing the amount of garbage dumped onto sea ice from communities in the Arctic during the mid-1970s.

By the 1980s, with environmental legislation in place, the group found a new focus in natural history.

Bromley says the members felt the environmental movement was already successful, so it had to evaluate how to combat more subtle problems like global warming.

"While the environmental movement has already been successful, the work is far from done," he says. "We found that we had to study things a little deeper because the problems are getting more complex."

Looking back over the last quarter-century, Bromley is determined that the work won't stop here.

"We will continue to address problems of environmental concern," he says. "We will evolve to respond to the changes needed for a healthier environment for Northern people."