Cape Town steel mill ordered to halt operations
After years of complaints from Kuils River residents, the City of Cape Town has enforced the conditions of an atmospheric emissions licence (AEL) granted to the Kamal-Cisco steel mill and ordered management to cease operations.
According to the city’s media liaison officer, Jan Kruger, the Cisco steel mill was ordered to cease operation on November 21 2023 in line with obligations under the National Environmental Management Act after complaints about the factory’s emissions.
The order will be in effect until the cause of the emissions is determined and reported, said Kruger.
The order to cease operations came after a photo taken by a Kuils River resident on November 17 2023 showed plumes of gas and smoke from the mill’s emission stacks.
A complaint was lodged by a member of the public that weekend, said Kruger.
According to industry standards, emissions visible to the naked eye contain particles larger than 50 microns, so these, and smaller particles, were not being captured in what is known as baghouses, which are meant to capture toxic dust before the emissions are released into the atmosphere.
Kruger said initial investigations took place on November 20, with the order to cease operations until the cause of the emissions could be established, given on November 21.
A further investigation by the city’s environmental health inspector on November 29 established that Cisco had failed to comply with conditions contained in the AEL. “These included administrative provisions, as well as conditions regulating emissions to the atmosphere”, said Kruger.
He said a compliance notice was then issued on December 22. Cisco has until February 28 2024 to fully comply.
“It’s a huge relief to the Kuils River community that the city has now finally decided to enforce compliance with air quality regulations, as we’ve been suffering for years now,” said Earl Polman, of the Vredelust Ratepayers’ Association.
But Polman questioned why the city had acted only now, after Patricia van der Ross, MMC for community service & health, claimed in April that Cisco was “in full compliance with the prescribed emission limits”.
“What suddenly changed that prompted the city to act now? We don’t know, but we don’t believe the steel mill is suitably situated so close to a residential community,” said Polman.
He also said the AEL was “riddled with irregularities”, which had been pointed out to the city. He said requests under the Promotion of Access to Information Act had been made in this regard, but the information supplied was edited and redacted.
This prevented “anyone from seeing what is really behind this AEL”.
When asked for comment, Cisco safety and health manager Jacqueline Jansen van Vuuren referred all questions to the City of Cape Town.