At a Glance | A toxic flow, an announced disaster

Authorized in 2015 by Quebec, the Recyclage G & R sorting center, on the Mohawk territory of Kanesatake, near Oka, began to accumulate notices of non-compliance two years after its opening.

“The fact that there is no water collection/treatment system […] is of concern,” a federal environment ministry law enforcement officer noted in 2019. The site is crossed by two natural watercourses, which flow into the Gratton and Girard streams, then into the Lac des Deux Montagnes.

An illegal section stuffed with toxic water

In 2017, the owners illegally set up a section in the southern area of ​​the site, where hundreds of tons of construction waste of all kinds were piled up. At the foot of this pile, thousands of liters of leachate threaten to escape into the environment.

Thanks to a drone, The Press discovered a breach on May 3 that allows this toxic percolation water to escape into Gratton Creek.

Toxic water mixed with a natural stream

The leachate contains in particular polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and “contaminants associated among others with sulphides, ammoniacal nitrogen and bacteriology, which can harm humans”, according to inspection reports.

This toxic water escapes through a pipe dug by the owners of the site, on the ground, in order to isolate a natural watercourse from the mountains from the toxic waters. Contaminated water mixes with “clean” water through this breach.

A plan presented to federal inspectors

Documents obtained by the Access to Information Act show that development plans designed to secure the site after a toxic spill in August 2020 were presented to Environment Canada inspectors on March 12, 2021.

The possibility of installing a coal-fired water treatment system was raised but not implemented. During this meeting, a law enforcement officer was concerned “about the melting snow” and the risk of overflow during the spring rains. A prediction that came true on May 3 and April 20, according to our aerial images.