Concerns raised over plan to dump more hazardous waste in Montreal suburb

Some residents in Blainville, a suburb north of Montreal, along with elected officials and Quebec's union of agricultural producers, are raising concerns about a proposal to dump even more hazardous waste in the municipality.

The American company Stablex has been treating and burying hazardous materials such as batteries and laboratory waste in Blainville for the past 40 years.

Headquartered in the municipality and the only dump site of its kind in Quebec, the company now wants to double its capacity by expanding onto city owned land. 

The proposed project, called Cell 6, aims to bury millions more tonnes of contaminated waste in Blainville, obtaining the required land by encroaching on woodlands and wetlands.

Resident Claude Beaudet is concerned about the size of the land in question: 69 hectares, including 54 hectares of forest habitat and nine hectares of wetlands which would be destroyed.

"Stop heavy industrial developments in an environment that must, at all costs, be protected, expanded and cared for," he said.

Philippe Le Guerrier, representative of the Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA) for the Laurentians, also has concerns. He says the waste will be buried about one kilometre from the irrigation basins of agricultural operations in the area. 

"The vegetables we produce are made with water from local ponds," he said, saying he's worried about contamination.

The company insists its process is safe "in perpetuity." Once filled to capacity, it says a cell is closed with a liner consisting of a sand separation layer, a layer of compacted clay and a waterproof geomembrane.

The Quebec government, however, is deferring to a report from its environmental review board. The Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement (BAPE) will begin evaluating the file starting May 8.

Residents will have the opportunity to be heard during the four-month study period.

'A garbage can for the United States and Ontario'

On Thursday, Radio-Canada reported that Stablex had asked the Environment Ministry for authorization to double its capacity to receive contaminated industrial waste.

The company wants to be able to bury an additional 8 million cubic metres of material over 40 years — four times the volume of Montreal's Olympic Stadium.

Over its past 40 years in operation, half of the hazardous materials received by Stablex have come from Ontario and the northeastern U.S.

"It should not be up to the people of the Laurentians to live with the garbage of our neighbours to the south," said Alejandra Zaga Mendez, environment critic for Québec Solidaire.

Martine Ouellet, former Parti Québécois minister and head of Climat Québec, presented a petition signed by nearly 3,000 people opposed to the project to the Blainville municipal council on Tuesday evening.

"Are we going to accept that Blainville be used as a garbage can for the United States and Ontario who want to get rid of their toxic waste?" she said. 

For his part, Environment Minister Benoit Charette says he's waiting for the results of the BAPE's independent review.

"I do not know of any project that has gone through the BAPE that has been accepted as initially presented," he said. "It is always a process that allows for the improvement or even the refusal of a project."

The Environment Ministry has been absent from the the monitoring committee for Stablex's activities for the past 10 years, the company said. 

These meetings, held five times a year, ensure general follow-ups of the ministry's requirements.

"They get called, we send the invitation, we send the minutes, and they've been satisfied with that since about 2012," Stablex executive Pierre Lego explained at a March 8 public meeting.

A spokesperson for the Environment Ministry said it "conducts its own audits, follow-ups and inspections to ensure compliance with the regulations."

City of Blainville neither for nor against project

Unlike some residents and the UPA, the city of Blainville told Radio-Canada that it had not requested a BAPE report and does not know if it will participate in it. 

"The city has been able to ask questions of Stablex and will continue to do so," said municipal spokesperson Yannick Proulx.

Blainville has already authorized the sale of the new land in question to the company in principle, for $14 million, subject to environmental approvals.

"It's not that we're going to oppose or be in favour of the project, it's that we're going to make sure that all the elements of the project are well considered, making sure that the project is carried out with the least environmental and social impact," said Blainville Mayor Liza Poulin. 

Poulin says she's aware that the peat bogs (next to which the dump site will be expanded) are "a jewel for our territory, so I share the concerns of the people."

However, she says that the Stablex project and the protection of peat bogs "are two separate issues, and I would like them not to be mixed up."

The impact study of the project shows that 1,000 square meters (0.1 hectare) of peatland will be lost.

As for the safety of the cells, Éric Lépine, who is responsible for the environment in the city of Blainville, notes that Stablex has already been burying hazardous materials for 40 years, southwest of the proposed site.

"There is still monitoring, there is follow-up, there is almost daily correspondence with the company," he said. "So, as long as the safety rules, the rules of good operation are ensured, there is no indication that it will be worse there than it is now."

Stablex declined Radio-Canada's request for an interview and a tour of the facility. The company also wrote: "We believe it is preferable not to publish an article on Stablex before the hearings."