Nearly three decades after demanding it, Quebec has just authorized the restoration of the bank of the St. Lawrence River near the former Elkem Métal Canada factory in Beauharnois, heavily contaminated with heavy metals, a project which had yet was deemed clearly insufficient by the Office of Public Hearings on the Environment (BAPE) in 2010.
The Legault government adopted in November the decree approving the company’s restoration plan, which plans to leave the majority of the contaminated soil on site, on the site where it produced ferromanganese, an iron and iron alloy, until 1991. of manganese used in steel production.
This restoration was required… in 1995, by the government of Jacques Parizeau, when Elkem Métal Canada, a subsidiary of the multinational Elkem, sold its property.
For years, the plant’s owners had used massive smelting residue (slag) to level and solidify the bottom of the land, including segments of the shoreline bordering Lake Saint-Louis, which constitutes the widening of the river at this location, explains the environmental analysis report of the restoration project, produced by the government.
These massive smelter residues are contaminated primarily by manganese, a neurotoxic contaminant with lead-like effects, as well as other heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
Contaminants buried on site
The Elkem restoration plan, which the Legault government decree describes as “environmentally acceptable, under certain conditions”, plans to remove some 7,300 cubic meters (m3) of contaminated fill and “confine” the rest on site by covering it with “clean soil”.
The BAPE, which looked into the project in 2010, rejected this option and concluded “the need to remove all the embankments and slag blocks from the bank”, which it estimated at approximately 21,400 m3.
« Le gouvernement du Québec fait fi du rapport du BAPE », s’offusque Daniel Green, spécialiste de la toxicologie de l’environnement et coprésident de la Société pour vaincre la pollution, qui déplore « une décontamination au rabais ».
Certaines conclusions de l’évaluation gouvernementale du projet sont « clairement dirigées par l’entreprise », affirme-t-il, déplorant que « Québec se fie à ce que l’entreprise lui dit, [tandis que] the BAPE went looking for other studies.”
Quebec asserts, for example, that the risk of contaminants running off the site and into the river is low, based on leaching tests carried out in the laboratory, but the BAPE emphasized that there remained “ambiguities and uncertainties” to this subject.
We see that this government prefers to side with the polluter [plutôt que] polluted and it’s a shame.
Daniel Green, specialist in environmental toxicology and co-president of the Society to Overcome Pollution
The BAPE also advocated that the decontamination of the bank be accompanied by that of the rest of the land, to avoid the recontamination of one by the other, indicates Daniel Green, recalling that the City of Beauharnois and citizens had expressed the same desire during the BAPE hearings.
The Elkem restoration plan concerns only the bank, over a width of approximately 10 meters and a length of 815 meters; decontamination of the rest of the land, which contains approximately 115,000 m3 of contaminated backfill, must be carried out by its current owner, the company Excavation René St -Pierre.
“The only person who doesn’t listen to people and who listens to Elkem is the Minister of the Environment,” says Mr. Green.
The City of Beauharnois also says it is disappointed with the restoration plan proposed by Elkem and accepted by Quebec.
“I would have preferred that they followed the recommendations of the BAPE, but that’s not what happened,” he told The Press Mayor Alain Dubuc.
His administration also does not know when and how the St-Pierre Group will restore the rest of the land.
The Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks refused to grant an interview to The Press.
An improved project, says Elkem
The restoration project authorized by Quebec is “completely different” from that rejected by the BAPE, told The Press the president of Elkem Métal Canada, Jean Villeneuve.
“We remove the slag. We take away a lot [et] we do that according to the Ministry’s standards,” assured Mr. Villeneuve, without being able to explain further what distinguishes the two projects.
The Legault government decree authorizing the project requires that the work be carried out before the end of 2033.
“I hope it won’t take us 10 years, it’s been dragging on for quite a long time,” exclaims Jean Villeneuve. Now that we have approval, we will move forward. »
The firm AtkinsRéalis (formerly SNC-Lavalin), which was mandated by Elkem, is already working to prepare the work, which should begin in 2025, indicated Mr. Villeneuve, who estimates its cost at “several millions” of dollars. .
New defeat in court for Elkem
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Contaminated land of the former Elkem factory in Beauharnois – this land adjoins the wooded land of the Bellemare family.
Elkem Métal Canada suffered a new legal setback by losing its appeal of the judgment of the Superior Court of Quebec which had condemned it in 20221 to rehabilitate the soil on the property neighboring its former Beauharnois factory and to pay nearly $200,000 in damages to its owners.
This property, called Pointe Saint-Louis, is a vast 18-hectare estate acquired in 1866 by Senator Charles-Séraphin Rodier and which still belongs today to his descendants, the Hone-Bellemare family.
Elkem has 60 days to ask the Supreme Court for permission to appeal the new judgment rendered on January 12 by the Quebec Court of Appeal, but she will not do so, told The Press its president, Jean Villeneuve.
“We will comply with the judgment,” he assured, adding that preparation of restoration work on the property would begin this year.
Satisfied with this outcome, the family now hopes for “full cooperation and assistance from the Ministry of the Environment”, recalling that the latter had demanded in the 1990s that Elkem decontaminate its property, explained to The Press Dominique Bellemare.
His brother François Bellemare deplores the fact that the Quebec government did not force the company to comply with its demands: “How is it that it is the simple citizen who must take these steps for 12, 13 years, and commit to big sums in the six figures? »