By summer 2027, the Horne Smelter will be able to reduce its arsenic emissions to 15 nanograms per cubic meter (ng/m3), as Quebec wants, by investing 500 million in a modernization plan. But she does not know when or how the Quebec standard of 3 ng/m3 can be reached. Residents and environmental organizations are formal: that is not enough.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
“This plan does not take into account the health of the population. Waiting five years to get to 15 nanograms doesn’t make sense. We must stop being treated like second-class citizens,” says Nicole Desgagnés, from the Rouyn-Noranda Toxic Discharges and Emissions Stop Committee.
On Monday, Quebec announced that the Horne Foundry should reduce its arsenic emissions to 15 ng/m3 within five years. From 2023, the Foundry estimates that it will be able to reduce its emissions to a threshold of 65 ng/m3then at 45 ng/m3 from 2024 to 2026, eventually reaching the 15 ng/m threshold3 in 2027. Currently, the authorized annual average is 100 ng/m3.
Glencore estimates that in 84% of the urban perimeter of Rouyn-Noranda – 1200 meters from the Foundry – the concentration will be 3 ng/m3 by 2027. In that year, 97% of the municipality within 450 meters or more of the Foundry will be at 7 ng/m3.
“We are not in a position to indicate how we will arrive at 3 ng/m3, at this stage. We are always aiming for improvement, but we have to give ourselves the chance to implement this transformation,” explained Glencore’s head of copper operations in North America, Claude Bélanger, on Thursday.
Mme Desgagnés is perplexed. “We feel that it’s a bit as if the Foundry wanted to stop at 15 nanograms. We would have liked it to be much faster to reach this target. And especially that we have a clear horizon to go towards 3 nanograms”, says the resident of Rouyn-Noranda.
“The feeling of being sacrificed”
At the Quebec Association of Physicians for the Environment (AQME), coordinator Patricia Clermont agrees. “It is not acceptable not to even offer the population a timetable for reaching the standard, especially when we know that there are families and citizens who are considering leaving the region, because they have the impression of being sacrificed, ”she criticizes. His group will also send a letter to Glencore on Friday urging it to commit to changing things.
“The government has once again been too lax from the start. He set the bar very low, too low, and the company is content to respond to it. It’s another free pass that the government finally grants, ”says Patrick Bonin, head of the climate-energy campaign for Greenpeace Canada.
Louis-César Pasquier, professor specializing in gas treatment at the National Institute for Scientific Research (INRS), recalls, however, that the infrastructures of the Horne Foundry are “ageing” and that it would therefore be “complex” to progress rapidly towards the 3ng/m3.
“It shows that this factory has not really evolved. The lack of past investments is costing us twice as much today. [On n’a] not focused on infrastructure improvements for environmental performance in recent years. There is still a long way to go,” he explains.
A 500 million plan
The Horne Smelter’s modernization plan includes four “major projects” aimed at making it “one of the lowest-emitting copper smelters in the world”. Two hundred million will be reserved for the “Phoenix project”, the construction of a new section “at the cutting edge of technology” to reduce the number of steps and the time required for the production of copper. Management estimates that the Foundry would thus reduce its arsenic emissions by 45 to 50% within five years.
Two hundred million will also go into an “air purification” project, which would “serve all levels of gas capture” – primary, secondary and tertiary – in a single transformation process. copper. This second project, called “R3”, would reduce emissions by 15 to 20%, according to Glencore, which hopes to have it completed by 2026. No jobs will be affected by these major changes, says the multinational.
However, it does not hide the fact that it will have to obtain financial assistance from the government. The Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, recalled Thursday that “the next step is the public consultation which will begin on September 6”. “All the citizens of Rouyn-Noranda and the region will have the opportunity to speak out on the subject,” he mentioned.
Québec solidaire and its deputy for Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue, Émilise Lessard-Therrien, want to demand compliance with the standard in a first mandate, by forcing Glencore to reach 15 ng/m3 in one year. “The foundry’s game plan gives us the impression of a plan agreed in advance with the CAQ. Looks fixed with the views guy, ”thundered Thursday Mme Lessard-Therrien.
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- 70 million
- The multinational plans to build a new “automated and energy-efficient” copper casting facility, at a cost of 70 million, to reduce its arsenic emissions by 10 to 15%. A “screen zone” will also be set up by 2024. It should cost 10 million.
Source: Glencore