Repairs to blame for pollution: Steelmaker

Residents are sounding the alarm about black smoke “continuously” pouring from stacks at ArcelorMittal Dofasco cokemaking plants over several weeks.

But both the steelmaker and province say “restoration” work on the aging infrastructure is actually to blame for what they call a temporary spike in pollution violations.

Resident group Coalition Against Pollution issued an email alert Tuesday about dark smoke spilling out of smokestacks at the steelmaker’s cokemaking facilities since late April.

Residents also tweeted photos Tuesday of black clouds trailing across the evening sky from the east-end facility.

Citizen organizer Jochen Bezner noted the company warned residents April 20 to expect a few days of more noticeable pollution because of a “coal quality issue” that lengthened coking times.

“But as of now no decrease has been observed, in fact the tallest stack at the company is continuously spewing out heavy black clouds,” he wrote, adding he is frustrated the provincial Ministry of Environment and Climate Change “either has no will or no enforceable law to curb such emissions.”

The steelmaker is doing “major restoration” on two coke plants and “visible emissions can worsen” during that work, said the steelmaker’s general manager of environment, John Lundrigan. That work will continue for several days, he said.

The ministry is aware of the “ongoing emissions,” said spokesperson Gary Wheeler by email.

He added the environmental regulator “continues to closely monitor progress on the coke plant restoration” and will be following up on “reported incidents.”

But Wheeler also noted the ministry already knew the coke plant rehabilitation work could “result in increased stack emissions while the operations stabilize” and added the company is regularly reporting to the local citizen liaison committee with updates.

It’s not clear whether the company will face any sanctions for the dark smoke plumes apparently created by its efforts to fix the aging, pollution-prone infrastructure.

Lundrigan said some of the work includes repairs to oven “through walls” and door leaks. He expects the temporary emission spikes to be followed by noticeable improvements.

Under air quality laws, the ministry can crack down on smokestack “opacity” violations — basically lingering smoke plumes that are hard to see through.

An exceedance is recorded when a pollution plume lasts more than six minutes with an opacity of more than 20 per cent.

The company pleaded guilty to several such charges and was fined $390,000 in 2014.

It has since shut down its oldest, most polluting coke plant and is in the midst of an overhaul of two others.