(Montreal) Despite its promise, in 2021, to make “constant efforts to reduce atmospheric emissions”, the Horne Smelter released 36 tonnes of arsenic into the air last year, more than for any what a year since 2005.
Posted at 1:07 p.m.
According to recent data from the National Pollutant Release Inventory published by the federal government, Glencore reported releasing 36 tonnes of arsenic into the air in Rouyn-Noranda in 2021. By comparison, the company reported 14 tons in 2020.
Looking in the National Pollutant Release Inventory, you have to go back to 2004 to find a year when the smelter’s chimneys released more arsenic than in 2021, or 52 tonnes.
In a publication entitled “2021 annual sustainable development bulletin”, Glencore was pleased to make “constant efforts to reduce atmospheric emissions”.
But it is clear that these efforts did not bear fruit last year, according to Clémentine Cornille, director general of the Regional Environmental Council of Abitibi-Témiscamingue.
“It is quite worrying, we find ourselves in a portrait very close to the beginning of the 2000s which is the worst moment in terms of arsenic” in the air, mentioned Mme Corneille.
In 2021, the level of arsenic in the air measured at the sampling station of the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change (MELCC), located in front of the smelter, showed an average of 100 nanograms per cubic meter (ng/m3), 33 times higher than the provincial standard.
In 2020, the average was 70 nanograms per cubic meter at the same station.
Why samples measured by this station are 1.4 times higher in 2021 than in 2020, when National Pollutant Release Inventory data shows the company released 2.5 times as many tonnes in 2021 than in 2020 (36 compared to 14)? The director general of the Abitibi-Témiscamingue Regional Council on the Environment makes a hypothesis.
“What that can mean is that the discharges, the emissions are sent into the air and are perhaps diluted in all the surrounding air. So, can it go further than this station? Can it go further on the territory of Rouyn-Noranda? Further south, east, west, north? »
Hence the interest, according to her, “to have more complete surveillance” and “to go and install stations more widely on the territory of Rouyn-Noranda”.
On Wednesday, during a visit to Rouyn-Noranda, the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charrette, raised the possibility of adding sampling stations to measure toxic emissions in the air, a request made by several doctors. and citizen groups.
The Canadian Press has asked Glencore to explain why the smelter released more arsenic into the air in 2021 than in any year since 2005, and the news agency is awaiting a response. .