It is not new that the Horne Smelter has been asked to meet the provincial standard for arsenic emissions into the air, which is 3 nanograms per cubic meter (ng/m3).
Posted yesterday at 5:00 a.m.
In 2004, a working group made up of several players in the health sector came to the conclusion that emissions had to be lowered to 10 ng/m3, within 18 months. This group also asked that the Horne Smelter commit to presenting a plan and a timetable for achieving the provincial standard of 3 ng/m3.
This famous calendar, we are still waiting for it 18 years later.
And it is regrettable that the plan submitted by the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, at the beginning of the week, still postpones the achievement of this provincial standard.
In fact, the government is only proposing to lower the threshold to 15 ng/m3within five years, following a recent recommendation from Public Health, without specifying how quickly the company will have to reduce its emissions, currently subject to a threshold of 100 ng/m3.
We can therefore fear that the company will wait until midnight minus one to make real efforts, while community groups have been calling for a drop to 15 ng/m3 from next November.
We understand them. Patience has its limits.
Because during this time, the children who live next to the factory have a concentration of arsenic in their fingernails four times too high. Nothing reassuring since arsenic can cause cancer, especially of the lung. It is also associated with neurodevelopmental disorders, especially in young children.
If the acceptable standard is deemed to be 3 ng/m3 in Quebec, there is no reason for it to be different for the children of the Notre-Dame district, located 100 meters from the foundry.
We must stop compromising with health. Point.
The foundry, which has existed since 1927, has had many years to adapt. The government allowed it to exceed the standard by granting it a “sanitation certificate” like 89 other major polluters across Quebec.
But this certificate must not become a license to continue polluting for eternity.
It must be recognized that, since the end of the 1990s, the company has considerably reduced its emissions of arsenic, but also of lead and cadmium.
Is it sufficient ? Certainly not.
We agree that we cannot reach the provincial standard overnight, unless we close the plant. And a closure would have a significant economic impact on the region, since the company creates 600 direct jobs and 1,850 indirect jobs.
Nevertheless, it is unacceptable that such a polluting foundry is installed in the middle of a residential area.
What to do then?
The company could move the district, at its own expense. No, it’s not that crazy. In 2009, the mining company Osisko spent tens of millions to relocate residents of a district of Malartic in order to install the largest open-pit gold mine in Canada.
But if the operation has revived the economy of the city in decline, it has also raised the discontent of some residents. And we can bet that it would be the same in Rouyn-Noranda.
Before reaching that point, Quebec should show firmness and impose a schedule aimed at reaching the provincial standard, with a clear and precise date and quantified intermediate objectives.
The government has already hinted that it is ready to release public funds to help the foundry modernize. But he will have to be careful.
The bulk of the effort should not come from public funds, but rather from the company, which rightly congratulated itself at the beginning of August on having recorded an exceptional financial performance. The multinational has multiplied its profits by ten, thus collecting more than 12 billion in six months.
There is certainly a way to tap into these juicy profits to clean up the air in Rouyn-Noranda.