Montreal is tightening the screws on Sanimax, whose factory located in Rivière-des-Prairies continues to arouse the ire of citizens because of the nauseating odors. The company will soon have to store animal materials in a building and will no longer be able to keep it outside, learned The Press.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
“Sanimax will no longer be able to keep its trucks waiting in the open air. That means they’ll have to have a pressurized garage, with air cleaners. They will no longer be able to leave animal matter in the street. This is major, because it is one of the major causes of odors,” explains the vice-president of the executive committee and mayor of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles, Caroline Bourgeois.
This new measure stems in fact from a regulation “on discharges into the atmosphere”, adopted in mid-June by the Metropolitan Community of Montreal (CMM). In Montreal, the effects of the by-law will mainly and specifically target Sanimax, indicated municipal sources familiar with the matter.
The regulation requires in particular that “all activities related to the storage of animal matter intended for a rendering plant take place in a building”, and at the same time prohibits “any form of preservation of animal matter at ‘exterior of a building’.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The Sanimax plant is located in the east of Montreal, on Maurice-Duplessis Boulevard, very close to residential neighborhoods.
“We are forcing the company to have adequate facilities to comply with the regulations”, illustrates M.me Bourgeois. “When you have a line of trucks waiting on the edge of Maurice-Duplessis Boulevard, a few steps from residential areas, it can’t work,” adds Ms.me Bourgeois.
Fewer legal battles
In the CMM regulations, the authorities also “determine the methods of sampling, analysis and calculation of an air pollutant”, specifying in passing the documents that must be provided to the authorities to apply for a permit to releases into the atmosphere. Finally, the regulation “sets out the conditions for suspension and revocation” of this type of permit, and adds a series of industrial activities in the “rendering plant” category.
Mme Bourgeois hopes that these new elements will make it possible to avoid “legal battles of interpretation”.
Whether it’s with Sanimax or others, we often end up with debates before the courts, which does nothing to help the citizen who aspires to air quality.
Caroline Bourgeois, Vice-President of the Executive Committee and Mayor of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles
“We therefore want to clarify these interpretation issues. And these are additional tools to do so,” said the borough mayor.
PHOTO DAVID BOILY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Caroline Bourgeois, Vice-President of the Executive Committee and Mayor of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles
At the CMM, spokesperson Julie Brunet specifies that the by-law affects the entire agglomeration of Montreal in the broad sense and that it will also apply to other businesses. “It hadn’t been updated for several years. That said, it’s officially adopted, but it’s not yet in effect. We are asking the government for 60 days to approve it, so we think that in mid-August, it will be in effect, ”she says.
A plan for Montreal?
Three months ago, in April, the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, announced a government plan to reduce odors at the Sanimax plant in Lévis. Mme Bourgeois then denounced that Rivière-des-Prairies was not part of this plan. She says today “hope” that this plan arrives “sooner rather than later”.
We cannot continue to accept that residents here are considered second-hand citizens.
Caroline Bourgeois, Vice-President of the Executive Committee and Mayor of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles
Initially specializing in the recovery of dead farm animals, Sanimax has been accumulating citizen complaints for several years. In the summer of 2021, in particular, the cities of Montreal, Lévis and Saint-Hyacinthe had received an unprecedented number of complaints against Sanimax. Since January of that year, the company alone had been the subject of 46% of the complaints relating to air quality recorded throughout the metropolis.
In January, the Superior Court ruled that the Quebec multinational had polluted the air and water. In the judgment, we read that the knacker tries to escape the law in the name of “twisted”, “brazen”, “absurd” arguments, devoid of “any valid legal basis” or having “strictly no sense “. However, the Court had ruled that Sanimax could not be punished for having left viscera covered with flies and blood in trailers without canvas.
In total, Sanimax has been sentenced at least three times by the municipal court, including twice in 2018. The first time was for preventing the City from measuring the smelly emissions of its factory. And the second was more for spilling black or greasy water that contained up to six times too many contaminants.
It was not possible to obtain the company’s reaction on Wednesday. However, this could be communicated to the public in the coming days.
With Marie-Claude Malboeuf, The Press