The Office of Public Hearings on the Environment (BAPE) recommends that the Legault government not authorize a major expansion project for a hazardous waste landfill site located in Blainville.
The company Stablex wishes to build a new “cell” on its already operational site in order to bury millions of additional tons of “industrial waste” treated on site over the coming decades, including residual hazardous materials and contaminated soil. and non-hazardous materials “having properties of concern for the environment”, according to what we can read in the BAPE report published Friday.
However, this project, which has aroused opposition from citizens in the region, is “premature”, concludes the BAPE. The commissioners therefore recommend to the government “not to authorize it”.
Their report highlights that Stablex has enough space to bury waste in the current cells, but also that the construction of a new cell would risk harming the wetlands and wooded environments located in the area. “The land targeted for the construction of the cell is part of an ecological corridor making it possible to connect two vast complexes of wetlands of ecological value considered exceptional and that the realization of the project would fragment it,” it is specified.
Furthermore, following its analysis, the commission of inquiry concludes that “it would be imperative” for the Quebec government to “carry out an inventory of the management of residual dangerous materials and non-hazardous materials of concern”.
Such an assessment should enable it to develop strategic orientations, complete its update of the Dangerous Materials Regulation and adopt an action plan for the reduction and management of these materials “taking into account the “evolution of territorial and environmental realities and concerns”, underlines the BAPE.
More details will follow.
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