National Assessment of Pulp and Paper Environmental Effects Monitoring Data: Findings from Cycles 1 through 3

In Cycle 3, 67 mills used control/impact designs and 20 mills used gradient designs. Approximately the same number of surveys, by study designs, were conducted in Cycle 2. In addition, in Cycle 3, two mills used benthic invertebrate mesocosms as an alternative method, which were not included in the national analysis. Similar to the fish survey, the benthic invertebrate data were initially screened for errors; a few difficulties were encountered with the electronically submitted data, including the following: 1) raw numbers in electronic files not matching numbers in interpretative reports, 2) benthic invertebrate densities not reported as numbers per square metre, 3) number of stations in electronic files not matching number of stations in interpretative reports and 4) inclusion of organisms and fragments of organisms in the electronic data that were not included in the interpretative report analysis. Overall, most of the data submitted were of good quality, and most mistakes were corrected manually when they were discovered. Only three benthic invertebrate surveys could not be included in the national analysis due to data quality errors in electronic submission.