Citizens living near the Nouveau Monde Graphite project, in Lanaudière, are worried about their immediate environment. Faced with what they consider to be a lack of transparency on the part of the company and the government, they have undertaken to carry out tests themselves on several rivers in the area.
“Several residents have noticed strange colors in the waterways,” said Daniel Tokatéloff, of the Association pour la protection du lac Taureau, in an interview with The duty Thursday.
This group of citizens, like the Coalition of Opponents to a Mining Project in Haute-Matawinie, is particularly concerned about the quantity of acid discharges and mining residues that could emanate from the graphite mine project, an essential ore in the production batteries for electric vehicles. The mine is already operating demonstration facilities and has started preparatory work for the commercial phase of the project.
The green light from the Quebec government to begin mining and ore processing operations in January 2021, obtained after a process at the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement, comes with certain conditions. In particular, the company must submit detailed technical reports to the Ministry of the Environment in connection with its water management.
However, these environmental monitoring documents are not made public at this time, which the opponents of the project deplore. It is in this context that they decided to take matters into their own hands and to carry out a dozen samples in surrounding watercourses. They entrusted the work to the Society to Conquer Pollution, led by Deputy Leader of the Green Party of Canada, Daniel Green, which will have to assess whether there are contaminants present in quantities harmful to the environment and health. The results should be communicated in the next few weeks or in the next few months.
At the same time, these citizen groups, supported by the organizations MiningWatch Canada, the coalition Pour que le Québec a mieux mine! and Eau Secours, ask the ministry and the mining company to make the environmental monitoring data public.
“We are also asking for greater state vigilance, for environmental inspectors to supervise mining sites,” added Rodrigue Turgeon, co-head of MiningWatch Canada’s national program. We no longer want it to be up to the industry to self-regulate, to disclose when it contaminates the water. »
For her part, the vice-president of communications of Nouveau Monde Graphite, Julie Paquet, assures that “all the results at the final effluent, where the discharges are returned to the environment, met the quality standards” in 2020 and 2021. She also said she was open to the company making technical reports public. Finally, she invited citizens who witness disturbing phenomena in the waterways to report it to the company or to the Ministry of the Environment.