The polluter disappears, the taxpayer pays the bill

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Anne Caroline Desplanques

Saturday, January 6, 2018 01:00

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Saturday, January 6, 2018 01:00

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Ottawa will spend more than $ 25 million of public funds to clean up a former landfill of the South Shore of Montreal, which threatens to contaminate the drinking water near Mercier, because the polluter has abandoned the site.

The land known as dump Sambault is situated in the middle of an agricultural area in the municipality of Saint-Isidore, near Mercier.

High doses of contaminants, for most carcinogens, are spread over no less than 15 hectares, according to analyses of the government.

Federal agents have classified it as high priority for action “due to the potential of contamination of the underground water,” says the spokesperson of public Services and Supply of Canada (SPAC), Sonia Tengelsen.

After you have spent$ 2.7 Million to study the extent of the damage, Ottawa has just granted a contract of$ 15.8 Million to Golder for it prevents pollution affect the water table. Ottawa account and then invest another$10 Million.

For decades, the dump has been used for waste of all kinds.

“It was a “dompe”, which received no control, often illegally, including hazardous waste brought by truck from the United States, ” says the écotoxicologue Daniel Green of the Society to overcome pollution.

The owner bends baggage

In 1995, the company has been dissolved. The company was registered at the federal level, when the owner put the key under the door, it is a SPAC which has inherited the hot potato.

“The owners have abandoned the field, recounts the mayor of Saint-Isidore, Sylvain Fee. Even if they would, there was no solvency of these people, there was nothing to do with them other. “

Ottawa will need, therefore, to draw from the pockets of taxpayers to rehabilitate the place.

Trap the contaminated water

To do this, Golder will cover the site of a dome to prevent rain water falls in it and contaminates, and will build a factory that will pump and treat the groundwater already contaminated.

Ottawa then plans to spend $ 500,000 per year for a minimum of 20 years for the operation of the plant.

The method, called trap hydraulic, is similar to the one that is in place on the site of the lagoons of Mercier, where the ministry of the Environment of Quebec operates a plant for the pumping and treatment of contaminated water since 1984.

The Newspaper has, however, revealed last month that the factory Environment Quebec generates water highly contaminated in nature, and not clean water.

Territory sacrificed for ever

Ottawa warns already that the ground of the former dump Sambault, Saint-Isidore, will never be clean, because the cleaning operation is judged to be too expensive.

“The costs of the removal of the contaminated soil were evaluated at several hundreds of millions of dollars,” says the spokesperson of public Services and Supply Canada, Sonia Tengelsen.

For the mayor of Saint-Isidore, Sylvain Fee, it is a territory that is ” sacrificed for ever “.

“There is no possibility of development for the municipality in this area “, he said.

Photo courtesy

Sylvain Payant, mayor of St-Isidore

However, the response to Ottawa’s much safer, because it will help protect the water resource.

Not as Mercier

The écotoxicologue Daniel Green, president of the Society to overcome pollution and deputy leader of the Green Party of Canada, welcomes the intervention of the federal government.

The work undertaken should enable him to avoid in Saint-Isidore the nightmare lagoons Mercier, located not far from there.

Photo Agence QMI, Frederick T. Muckle

Daniel Green, écotoxicologue

This field is the worst contaminated site in Quebec. It has received tons of toxic waste for decades.

Pollutants have gradually reached the water table and condemn now the drinking water for three municipalities.

At the heart of a legal battle since the 1990s, the site has never been decontaminated in spite of the recommendations of the Office of public hearings on the environment.

“It is sure that the lagoons of Mercier, that is known to everyone in the region, this is an example that it is not necessary to repeat it,” breath is the mayor Paid.

► Ottawa has taken on the responsibility of the former dump Sambault in 2010. In 2012, it was awarded a contract for environmental characterization to the firm TechnoRem. Then, in October 2017, the company Golder has won the rehabilitation contract. The bulk of the work will begin next summer.