The Abitibi-Témiscamingue Public Health Department (DSPU) wants the Horne smelter to reduce its arsenic emissions to 15 nanograms per cubic meter (ng/m3) in a horizon “shorter” than five years and take the means to avoid any delay in achieving this objective.
The local public health authorities published their opinion on contaminant emissions and the company’s action plan on October 15, as part of the renewal of its ministerial authorization in terms of the environment. The DSPU notes the absence of several elements in this plan providing for investments of more than 500 million dollars to achieve in particular an arsenic emission threshold of 15 ng/m3 by 2027.
According to the company located in Rouyn-Noranda and owned by the multinational Glencore, certain “uncontrollable” factors may arise and lead to challenges in reaching this target, which represents five times the Quebec standard. These aspects beyond its control are, among others, the supply chain, the availability of labour, inflation and the cost of projects.
However, for the DSPU, “it is important to set up contingency plans if elements were to upset” the schedule since “delays in relation to the targets in the proposed plan should not be tolerated”.
It reiterates in its report that the targets, which also include a reduction in the ambient air concentration of cadmium and lead, “should be achieved as soon as possible”.
The DSPU recommends that the Ministry of the Environment adopt “a dynamic authorization allowing the requirements to be tightened over time” according to the progress of the work at the Horne smelter, “but also according to the acquisition of knowledge” .
The health authorities point out that the 15 ng/m3 of arsenic must be “an interim value” and not “maintained indefinitely over time”, setting the annual target to be achieved at 3 ng/m3. According to the DSPU, Quebec should require the company to plan “from now on” the means to achieve the national standard and that the work in this direction be communicated to the population.
Remember that the Horne foundry currently exceeds the Quebec standard by 33 times.
Frequent exceedances of daily targets
Among the elements deemed missing in its plan, the DSPU believes that the company should specify how it will manage to respect the daily limits proposed by the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ) for arsenic, lead and cadmium. .
It also notes that frequent exceedances of the daily targets in the air would still be possible during the deployment of the action plan. It appears, she writes, that the exceedances could oscillate annually between 7 and 18 days for arsenic, 18 and 40 days for cadmium and 106 and 128 days for lead, until 2026.
If the INSPQ believes that the effects on the development of young children and unborn children are “in all likelihood in a low risk zone”, the DSPU is concerned about the neurotoxic effects related to the current frequencies of overrun, observed in the sector of the legal sampling station.
The part of contaminated soils on the carcinogenic risk is not to be neglected either, evokes the DSPU.
This suggests additional measures for the characterization and rehabilitation of land in the Notre-Dame district, in particular to ensure periodic and long-term verification of the soil, particularly for places frequented by young children. She considers that the soil analysis should also extend to the entire urban perimeter of Rouyn-Noranda to know the extent of the contamination.
Abitibi Public Health also notes that the company’s plan does not contain modeling regarding sulfur dioxide (SO2). This contaminant is a lung irritant. Quantitatively, it remains the pollutant emitted in the greatest quantity by the foundry, with 88% of the total discharges, mentions the document.
The DSPU recommends that the Ministry of the Environment add at least one continuous measurement detector available in real time for SO2 at the legal station. The company estimates that it can reduce its SO emissions by 45%2 thanks to its PHENIX project.
The public consultation on the renewal of the ministerial authorization for the Horne smelter continues until Thursday.
This article was produced with the financial support of the Meta Fellowships and The Canadian Press for News.