Montreal-Trudeau Airport | Dorval exasperated by a new spill

A new spill of chemicals from land at Montreal-Trudeau airport into a stream flowing into the St. Lawrence River infuriates the mayor of Dorval, who calls on the federal government to intervene.

Concerned about the abnormal color of the water in Bouchard Creek, a citizen alerted the municipal and airport authorities on December 6, suspecting a spill of glycol, a chemical from the alcohol family used as a de-icer for aircraft. due to its antifreeze properties.

Fifteen minutes after the citizen’s call, the water in the creek had returned to its normal color, told The Press the mayor of Dorval, Marc Doret, who regrets that events of this kind are recurrent.

His administration reported the situation to the Environment Department of the City of Montreal, which is responsible for these issues for all of the municipalities on the island.

“After investigation, the Service concluded that it is a presence of hydrocarbons and not of glycol”, declared to The Press Kim Nantais, spokesperson for the City of Montreal.

“At the request of the Environment Department of the City of Montreal, the Airport has actively put in place the infrastructure to contain and collect the contamination in the areas concerned,” added Ms.^me Nantes.

Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) says it was “notified of an oil spill of less than one liter” on land belonging to it outside the restricted area and leased to a “partner” that day.

“As it was raining, the rainwater mixed with the liter of hydrocarbons, which caused them to end up in the storm sewer through the drain and thus a quantity could have spilled in part into a course of water from the airport site”, explained to The Press Eric Forest, spokesperson for ADM.

“There was no glycol involved in the incident,” he said.

ADM’s environmental and grounds maintenance managers went on site to ” [aider] the tenant to contain the spill” and increased monitoring of the watercourse was carried out over the following days as a precautionary measure, said Mr. Forest.

The mayor is impatient

ADM’s explanations do not satisfy Mayor Doret.

“We are discouraged, because there is always an excuse,” he says.

“The Airport is trying to sell itself as a business quite ecological, which is not really the case; it is one of the biggest polluters in the west of Montreal,” continues the mayor.

“It’s time for the federal government to put a little pressure on the Airport so that they think a little more [approfondie] on the environment,” he said.

According to him, events such as that of December 6 undermine the efforts made for many years to restore the health of the Bouchard stream – the small stream has its source north of the airport, which it crosses in a buried pipe before to resurface southeast of the trails, and crosses the city of Dorval to finally throw itself into the river at the height of the Parc du Millénaire.

Dorval also plans to direct the site towards aquatic activities, which the improvement in water quality could allow, but fears that the spills which continue to occur are an obstacle, explains the mayor.

Filtration station claimed

The City of Dorval and the Montreal borough of Lachine are demanding that ADM build “a mini filtration station” to prevent the release of pollutants from the airport into Bouchard Creek, recalls Mayor Marc Doret.

ADM points out that the underground drainage network at Montréal-Trudeau airport is equipped with hydrocarbon sensors and that its de-icing center inaugurated in 2014 recovers glycol through a system of underground pipes.

A monitoring program for the quality of rainwater, sanitary and groundwater is also in place to ensure the protection of the waterways that cross the site, adds spokesperson Eric Forest.

“More than 500 analyzes are carried out annually on samples of rainwater taken from the various outlets of the Montréal-Trudeau and Montréal-Mirabel airports”, he specifies, adding that compliance with municipal standards relating to water quality is verified by regular inspections.