The McInnis cement plant minimized the sticky dust problems to the environmental monitoring committee, to the point of shaking the latter's confidence in the company.

• Read also: Cement McInnis continues to dust its neighbors

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This committee, made up of organizations and citizens, monitors the environmental commitments of the cement plant, which undertakes to provide it with all the necessary information.

The publication last week of a notice from the Ministry of the Environment in which it threatens to use an order to force the Gaspé plant to comply with the law has taken the committee aback.

“Today, we realize that the explanations we gave to the committee were quite understated,” laments Caroline Duchesne, director of the Conseil de l’Environnement de la Gaspésie et des Îles, member of the committee.

"We were fooled a bit, we weren't really clear, direct and frank," she continues. The environmental committee is losing confidence. With the episodes of dust and the change of owner, we are moving away.”

Since December 2021, the Port-Daniel-Gascons plant has been operated by Ciment St-Marys, a subsidiary of Brazilian giant Votorantim Cimentos.

Notified late

The first episodes of clinker and cement dust were revealed by Le Journal in the summer of 2020.

“The whole committee had been shaken to learn it in the newspaper,” said Ms. Duchesne.

In the ministry's notice, we learn that there were 10 equipment failures between August 2020 and September 2021. Over the past two years, there have been 80 reports and 11 air quality complaints. The factory received five notices of non-compliance, and the department has been investigating ever since.

“The company told us that the breaks were not in the same places, that there was running in and learning, so we gave the chance to the runner, specifies Caroline Duchesne. They said everything would be fixed and about toxicity, it was never serious.

Documents still awaited

In January, the company promised the committee to release air quality data, but that still hasn't been done, contributing to undermining trust.

“We are there to help them and not to gild their image. If we realize that we are there just for appearances, we will withdraw, says Ms. Deschesne. But we don't want to let go so quickly, because what we're doing is beneficial for the region."

WHAT IS THIS COMMITTEE?

The environmental monitoring committee was created in 2015 on the sidelines of a legal appeal. It is composed of: