Hagia Sophia landfill site | Énergir has the green light from BAPE for its connection project

Énergir’s project consisting of injecting methane generated by the Sainte-Sophie landfill site into its natural gas distribution network should be authorized, even if its climate benefits are largely overestimated, concludes the Office of Public Hearings on environment (BAPE) in its report made public by mistake on Thursday.

Énergir is asking the government for authorization to build a pipeline that will allow it to connect to its network a biogas valorization complex and a biomethanization plant that the multinational Waste Management plans to build at its technical landfill in the Laurentians.

The gas distributor would thus have access to 80 million cubic meters ^⁠of “renewable natural gas”, generated by the decomposition of organic materials buried in Sainte-Sophie, and possibly those which would be biomethanized there.

“The Énergir project should be authorized,” concludes the BAPE in its report which must be made public this Friday, but which was briefly posted online on Thursday, due to a “technical problem”.

The BAPE, however, contests the reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that the project would entail, asserting that they “were overestimated by Énergir, due to the omission of certain variables,” write the commissioners, who value them at less than a third of what the company puts forward.

Énergir maintains that its project would avoid the emission of 124,387 tonnes of GHG per year from 2025 to 2050, but these estimates do not take into account the emissions generated by the use of fossil gas by Waste Management to operate its facilities. nor the use of fossil gas by the Papiers Rolland factory in Saint-Jérôme, which until very recently used biogas from the landfill site, underlines the BAPE.

The realization of the project could also “endanger” the Papiers Rolland factory, its owner Sustana worried during the BAPE commission of inquiry in January.

Read the article “Énergir and Waste Management project in Sainte-Sophie: the Papiers Rolland factory “in danger””

Energetic transition

The BAPE “is also perplexed” by Énergir’s assertions that the renewable gas that its project would allow to inject into the network replaces fossil gas, stressing that it is possible that it is only added to the supply of fossil gas.

“Any new use of renewable natural gas should not automatically be counted as an equivalent reduction of fossil natural gas unless prior rigorous analysis has been conducted,” the commissioners write.

The BAPE’s recommendation to approve the project should therefore have been conditional, laments Jean-Pierre Finet, analyst in economic regulation of energy for the Regroupement des organisms Environnemental en Énergie.

The project will not ensure “optimal use” of renewable natural gas, which should be reserved for industrial processes that are difficult to electrify, he said, recalling the conclusions of a recent Quebec study calling into question the benefits of the rush towards RNG of Énergir.

Read the article “Not so green, renewable natural gas”

The BAPE report also calls on Quebec to conduct a broader reflection on the use of renewable natural gas in the energy transition, in order to “develop sustainable energy strategies that meet climate imperatives”.

Impact of deforestation

The BAPE report also highlights concerns about deforestation and its impact on bird nesting that the project would cause, deeming Énergir’s proposal to reforest an area equivalent to the losses of forest environments caused by its infrastructure insufficient.

“The initiator should compensate for the losses of forest environments at a ratio greater than 1 to 1 in surface area,” write the commissioners, who also call for the work to be carried out outside the bird nesting period, which extends from mid-April to the end of August.

Otherwise, Quebec “should require the rigorous application of effective mitigation measures to limit the repercussions on avian fauna, in particular on species with a precarious status,” recommends the BAPE.

Énergir considers it “feasible to meet the BAPE’s recommendations,” declared its general director of public, government and community affairs, Catherine Houde, happy with the organization’s conclusions.

The company, however, is asking the government for a “clear framework” to evaluate the GHG reductions linked to its project, reiterating the argument that it does not control the GHG emissions of Waste Management or Papiers Rolland.

The evaluation of the project continues at the Ministry of the Environment, which should make its decision whether or not to authorize the project “in the coming weeks or months”, declared the press secretary of Minister Benoit Charette, Mélina Jalbert.

The minister received the BAPE report on April 5 and will take its recommendations into account in his decision-making, adds M.^me Jalbert.

“The government cannot approve this project [en l’absence] of a credible study on GHG emissions,” reacted Patrick Bonin, head of Greenpeace Canada’s climate-energy campaign, deploring that the Ministry of the Environment deemed the environmental impact study admissible. completely botched” by Énergir.