Industrial residues, biomedical waste, radioactive or explosive materials, soils contaminated by heavy metals or hydrocarbons: voices are calling for an end to the importation of hazardous waste into Quebec and an overall portrait of the industry.
From Saguenay to the Laurentians, via Montérégie, companies are currently planning projects to expand their processing capacities and eliminate these products officially called “residual hazardous materials”.
One should be approved and another should be rejected, concluded the Office of Public Hearings on the Environment (BAPE), which could also be called upon to study the third (see box).
“We analyze all the projects separately, but it’s very difficult to have an image on the scale of the province,” laments biologist and environmental management specialist Rébecca Pétrin, general director of the Water organization. Rescue.
“We are asking for an expanded public consultation on the management of hazardous materials,” she said, a recommendation also made by… the BAPE itself, which considered it “imperative that the ministry responsible for the Environment carry out an inventory” on the question, in its report on the Stablex Canada project in Blainville.
The Quebec Environmental Technology Business Council (CETEQ) also believes that “it would be a good thing” to draw up such a portrait, which would help “make the best decisions,” its general director, Kevin Morin, told La Presse.
The exercise would provide “interesting” insight, recognizes the Minister of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks, Benoit Charette, who does not rule out doing it later.
“This is not something that is being considered in the short term, because we first want to deal with the case of Stablex, but I am not closed to the idea,” he told La Presse.
Half of the residual hazardous materials treated or eliminated in Quebec come from outside the province, mainly from the United States and, to a lesser extent, from the rest of Canada.
“What is worrying is the importation of waste,” says the president of the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean Regional Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development, Monique Laberge, who is also calling for an inventory of the situation.
“At least we would have the data, the analysis of possible technologies,” she illustrates, recalling that the last portrait of the situation dates back to 1990, when the BAPE produced a voluminous report of 500 pages, which notably recommended put an end to the importation of residual hazardous materials and opt for mobile treatment technologies, “so that a population does not live [alone] with the disadvantages of this industry,” recalls Ms. Laberge.
The importation of hazardous waste represents a burden for Quebec, adds Eau Secours, which also calls for an end to it.
“In the United States, no matter where a company buries its product, it remains responsible for it, [but] when it is exported, it is lifted and the producer is no longer responsible,” says Rébecca Pétrin, illustrating that the Quebec can thus find itself stuck with poorly identified materials, which prove impossible to process.
The importation of residual hazardous materials is necessary if Quebec wants to be able to continue processing its own, argues the Minister of the Environment.
“We have to be able to make these operations profitable, and that is a question of volume,” says Benoit Charette, echoing the words of Kevin Morin, of CETEQ, who also estimates the import necessary for companies in the sector have “enough material across Quebec to develop expertise and improve processes”.
Quebec also ships dangerous materials to other provinces, which could stop taking them if it stopped taking theirs, indicates the minister. “We can, however, partially limit imports,” he suggests.
About fifty Quebec companies “process” hazardous waste “in order to use them again for the same purposes as the initial use”, or to recycle them, or to make them non-hazardous in order to eliminate them in a disposal site. conventional burial, explains Josée Guimond, spokesperson for the Quebec Ministry of the Environment.
Four companies “dispose” of hazardous waste by landfilling or incineration, three of which only eliminate those resulting from their own activities; only Stablex eliminates third-party waste.
The health and environmental risks linked to the management of hazardous waste, such as storage, atmospheric releases or water contamination, worry the general director of the Quebec Common Front for Ecological Waste Management, Karel Ménard , who also deplores the absence of a global portrait.
There is also the question of using Quebec territory to bury dangerous waste from elsewhere, adds Rébecca Pétrin, who is also concerned about the consequences of a possible accident involving a truck or a boat transporting these materials.
The solution involves reduction at source, which an inventory would help to achieve, argues Ms Pétrin.
“If there are that many companies knocking on our doors, we should select the best, the good players,” she said, echoing the words of the Legault government affirming that Quebec is in line with the focus of many foreign firms.
“Let the others improve their processes,” says Ms. Pétrin. It’s hell to manage, once the waste is produced. »
