Rouyn-Noranda | A plume of smoke from the Horne Foundry raises concern

A plume of orange smoke emerging from a chimney of the Horne Foundry caused concern on Wednesday in Rouyn-Noranda, recalling a past incident for which the company had been sanctioned by the Ministry of the Environment.

Jean-Thomas Léveillé
The Press

“It’s the kind of smoke you see very rarely in Rouyn,” told The Press Dany Croteau, who has lived there for 30 years and who saw the plume when he went out for his morning walk, around 9:30 a.m.

“We had a lot of calls to the office, from people who were worried”, indicated to The Press the MNA for Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue Émilise Lessard-Therrien, who is also Québec solidaire spokesperson on the environment.

“The orange smoke, it strikes the imagination”, unlike the generally odorless and colorless polluting emissions of the Foundry, she added, saying that she had made a report to the Regional Public Health Department and to the Ministry of the Environment. and the fight against climate change (MELCC).

“Several people” also expressed their concern to the committee Stopping discharges and toxic emissions from Rouyn-Noranda (ARET), which brings together parents and residents of the Notre-Dame district, neighboring the foundry, told The Press Mireille Vincelette, co-spokesperson for the organization.

Previous in 2017

According to the smelter, it was the presence of nitrogen oxides (NOx) that gave the smoke its orange color, due to a normal chemical reaction resulting from “inspection of [ses] equipment” which was planned, she explained in a publication on the social network Facebook.

Nitrogen oxide can cause respiratory tract irritation and is one of the main causes of acid rain.

“Although the plume may seem impressive, the amount of gas contained in it is not high,” she says. In addition, NOx measurements are taken at ground level and so far no gas has been detected. »

However, the plume of smoke observed on Wednesday is reminiscent of that which occurred in May 2017, for which the Horne Foundry had also been reassuring in the immediate future, but had then received a notice of non-compliance from the MELCC for not having respected the standards. of nitrogen oxide emissions, reported Radio-Canada at the time.

Requested by The Press, the Foundry said its own employees took the measurements on Wednesday, but did not disclose them; nor has it indicated who certifies its authenticity.

Transparency criticized

This new incident once again demonstrates the lack of transparency of the Horne Foundry, believe Mireille Vincelette and Émilise Lessard-Therrien, who have been demanding “for a long time” continuous and independent data on the company’s emissions.

“That’s what’s annoying, we never know in real time what we are exposed to and if there are measures we can take to protect ourselves,” laments the first.

“The foundry knew it was going to do this operation. She could have warned the population, ”adds the second.

The City of Rouyn-Noranda “would indeed have liked to be informed in advance of the procedure that was planned by the Horne Foundry”, also indicated to The Press his spokesperson, Nancy Ménard, saying he understood the concerns of citizens.

Located in the heart of the city, the Horne Foundry often arouses concern in Rouyn-Noranda, in particular for its arsenic emissions, which jumped last year, reported The Press last month.

The Regional Public Health Department (DSPu) affirms that “no citizen has reported symptoms related to this episode” and that, therefore, it “will not issue any advice of the info-health type”, indicated to The Press Sarah Charbonneau, from the Abitibi-Témiscamingue Integrated Health and Social Services Center (CISSS).

She adds that the regional directorate of the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change (MELCC) “measured, in collaboration with the personnel of the Foundry, the concentrations of NOx in the residential neighborhoods surrounding the Foundry [et qu’] no overshoot was observed.

However, the MELCC did not respond to questions from The Press at the time of publishing these lines.