‘A step forward’ in Pointe-Claire
One year and five days after Quebec Environment Minister David Heurtel ordered the work be done, the report has landed on his desk. It contains the analysis of soil near a building in Pointe-Claire, which illegally stored polychlorinated biphenyls for at least 15 years.
Tucked into the news release about the arrival of the report was Pointe-Claire Mayor Morris Trudeau’s announcement that the government has committed to testing soil on nearby residential properties, something residents had been demanding for four years, to no avail.
“It’s a step forward,” Green Party of Quebec Leader Alex Tyrrell said.
Tyrrell has pushed hard to get the authorities to move on the analysis and rehabilitation of the property and environs since a toxic leak was first reported in 2013.
City workers detected an oily substance leaking near the former Reliance Power Equipment building on Hymus Boulevard.
It was discovered that PCB-laden material had been stored in the facility since at least 1998.
The purchase, sale or manufacturing of PCBs has been illegal in Canada since 1977 and federal regulations on PCB storage intensified following an explosion at a facility storing PCBs in St-Basilele-Grand in 1988.
It’s been an uphill climb to get the decontamination work underway.
The owner of Reliance had died and the company could not afford the millions of dollars it would cost to analyze and rehabilitate the soil. The government took over the removal of the toxic containers in August 2013.
In 2015, Pointe-Claire sold the site to Juste Investir Inc. after Reliance failed to pay its tax bill.
At that point, the rehabilitation process ground to a halt because the new owner took legal action. The company didn’t want to pay for the analysis and decontamination.
When that didn’t work and another government-imposed deadline for the report passed, the company said the experts needed to do the analysis were all busy.
Meanwhile, residents who live near the facility were concerned about possible health risks.
Trudeau repeatedly told residents they shouldn’t worry because Montreal’s regional health agency had deemed that the area did not pose a health risk. Scientific evidence has yet to be made public to support the health agency’s position.
Last week’s announcement that the government has finally agreed to have residential properties analyzed left Rean Sague cold. She lives within a stone’s throw of the site and will not take her 15-month-old child into the backyard to play until she is shown scientific proof that the yard is contamination free.
She’s not convinced the government will supply that proof in a timely manner.
Sague said residents on her street have already consulted with a private firm about how much the testing would cost.
“Will the government publish the report after it’s done?” Sague said. “How long will that take? It’s been four years since the leak. I’d rather have the testing done by a private company.”
Media reports connecting Reliance with PCB storage reach back as far as 1985. Back then, contaminated soil was detected. It was removed and stored in sealed barrels. That same year, it was reported that the company applied for a permit to build a PCB storage facility, but the permit was refused by the city.
Tyrrell has filed multiple access to information requests during his research into the timeline of communications between PointeClaire and the environment ministry.
One of the documents he received as a result was a strongly worded email from Pointe-Claire city manager Robert Weemaes to the Environment ministry, dated March 2016, demanding in no uncertain terms concrete proof that the soil at the site and its environs did not pose a health risk.
Tyrrell said Weemaes’ email demonstrated an effort to get some answers, but he continues to question how the facility managed to store a toxic substance for so long without the city knowing.
Juste Investir must submit a decontamination plan to the government by March 13.