SPECIAL TO THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR Under a cloud

scotto

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Dofasco plume raises concern

Posted with permission from the Hamilton Spectator


February 22, 2008
Eric McGuinness
The Hamilton Spectator
(Feb 22, 2008)
The Ontario Ministry of the Environment is now almost six months late answering a request to review its approval certificate for emissions from ArcelorMittal Dofasco's KOBM melt shop, which sent a huge red cloud of pollution into the sky over east Hamilton Wednesday.

It's the third reported daytime incident at the plant this month.

A photo of the first, a towering black cloud from the No. 2 blast furnace Feb. 7, appeared in The Spectator the next day. Another large, visible emission was noted Feb. 11 and Wednesday's iron- oxide-tinged plume enveloping the melt shop was photographed by Beach resident Jim Howlett.

The ministry won't explain its delay responding to the application by Environment Hamilton and north Hamilton residents, filed under Ontario's Environmental Bill of Rights. It says only that "the application remains under review."

The law requires a response within 60 days. The deadline passed Sept. 4, 2007.

Lynda Lukasik, executive director of Environment Hamilton, says the delay "makes my blood boil."

Ontario Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller says it's unacceptable, that he's pressing Environment Minister John Gerretsen for action on the Dofasco application and at least half a dozen others that are seriously overdue.

"I am very concerned about this failure to observe statutory requirements and am pursuing all available avenues to bring the ministry into line. I'm not in a position at this time to say what further action I might take."

Miller said such delays are relatively recent, that historically there wasn't a problem.

"As I said in my special report, Doing Less With Less, the ministry is so seriously underfunded and lacking in expertise that it is not fulfilling its functions. It is not performing at a level the Ontario public would expect."

Emissions from the Dofasco melt shop have been an issue since 2003-2004 when Environment Hamilton began its Stack Watch program in which citizens report and, if possible, shoot photos or video of dark, sooty smokestack plumes.

Lukasik said the company admitted pollution-control problems at the KOBM facility in its 2001 annual report and later said it would install a new system by the end of last year.

"We want the ministry to create a situation where the company is legally required to fix the situation. We see releases on a regular basis and submitted a whole chronology of photos."

Andrea Horwath, NDP MPP for Hamilton Centre, pressed the McGuinty government in the legislature last December for action on the Dofasco application, saying: "Hamilton has been rained on by greasy soot. Its waterways were poisoned by a toxic chemical fire (at Biedermann Packaging in Dundas) that this government refuses to investigate. The damaging air pollution is thick, while the powers that be turn their backs. I implore the government to finally act."

emcguinness@thespec.com

905-526-4650

Photo- Jim Howlett, Special to the Hamilton Spectator
 

scotto

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Call for air quality crackdown

March 07, 2008
Eric McGuinness
The Hamilton Spectator
(Mar 7, 2008)
East Hamilton residents, tired of industrial fallout and worried about their health, are demanding the Ontario Ministry of the Environment charge companies that violate air pollution laws.

Jim Howlett, chair of the Hamilton Beach Community Council, told reporters yesterday, "Imagine if we had police downtown who never laid a charge, then tell us people in Toronto or Ottawa say we can't lay charges, we can only hold meetings."

Calling on Premier Dalton McGuinty and Environment Minister John Gerretsen to tell front-line ministry staff to "do your job and do it well," Howlett said, "There's no place that would make a better example than Steeltown."

Lorna Moreau said air quality improved after she moved to the McAnulty Neighbourhood north of Centre Mall 25 years ago, but it has grown worse in recent years. Greasy, black fallout made headlines in the summer of 2006, and Moreau said she and her neighbours continue to be plagued by sickening smells and dustfalls.

The two spoke at a news conference called to release a letter in which the ministry rejected Moreau's application under the Environmental Bill of Rights for a review of approval certificates for air emissions from ArcelorMittal Dofasco's melt shop, which includes a 310-tonne KOBM steelmaking furnace.

Lynda Lukasik, executive director of Environment Hamilton, said a red cloud enveloping the shop in a recent news photo was not an isolated incident and is evidence of pollution-control failings the company acknowledged as far back as 2001.

She noted that Dofasco had said it would install new pollution controls at the KOBM facility, but under new ownership is now telling the ministry it plans only to try to make the existing system work better.

That prompted Moreau to compare Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal to absentee landlords who disregard community concerns.

Company spokesperson Andrew Sloan later responded by saying, "ArcelorMittal Dofasco is as committed as it ever has been to high community standards and environmental responsibility." He said critical ductwork at the melt shop was installed last year to reduce frequency of visible emissions and more work is planned this year.

Sloan also said some emissions result from safety-valve releases that protect worker safety.

Paul Miller, a former steelworker serving as NDP MPP for Hamilton East-Stoney Creek, attacked the ministry for "a lack of enforcement (and) a lack of inspections," saying: "There's no meat to their enforcement. They won't fine them. The MOE is not doing their job."

Hamilton Centre NDP MPP Andrea Horwath issued a statement slamming the government for refusing to review the decades-old Dofasco certificates, calling the action "a real slap in the face to all the people who repeatedly suffered deluges of greasy soot in their homes and on their properties."

emcguinness@thespec.com

905-526-4650
 

scotto

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Smokestack ruling stinks, residents say

By Richard Leitner

Stoney Creek News
Mar 14, 2008
The Ministry of the Environment is being accused of turning a blind eye to emission problems at a Dofasco melt shop after rejecting calls for a review of the plant's operating approvals.

"These aren't little puffs. These are massive blow-offs that happen on a regular basis," Jim Howlett, president of the Hamilton Beach Community Council, said at a press conference denouncing the decision.

"They're clearly out of compliance here. The existing laws aren't being enforced," he said, estimating he's called ministry staff to his house at least 60 times in the past two years.

"It's maddening. You wouldn't accept this level of non-enforcement from any other branch of law enforcement."

With the help of citizens group Environment Hamilton, two neighbouring residents filed an Environmental Bill of Rights application last July seeking a review of the melt shop's approvals.

They also urged the ministry to force Dofasco to follow through on an apparent commitment in its 2004 annual report to install new emission controls by the end of last year to cut the plant's output of heavy metals like lead, chromium, zinc, manganese and copper.

But a recent, formal response from the ministry rejected the need for a review, citing the steelmaker's ongoing upgrades to existing controls, which will continue through next year.

Lorna Moreau, one of the residents who pushed for the review, called the decision a victory for "big money, politics."

She said her neighbourhood's air pollution is the worst it's been in the 25 years she lived there and she can no longer enjoy her backyard and pool and has been forced to paint her white patio furniture black.

Both Dofasco and Columbia Chemicals have provided modest compensation, but the situation "just gets worse and worse and worse," she said.

"The smells are atrocious. They're sickening. You can't be outside," Ms. Moreau said. "I don't think they care about us and I'm really concerned about the health because we don't know what's coming out and we're just getting more and more."

Environment Hamilton executive director Lynda Lukasik said it's hard to judge how Dofasco's upgrades will change the situation, but she's disturbed to learn the plant's emissions aren't being directly monitored.

According to the ministry's response, "technology doesn't presently permit measurements at the stack," so it instead relies on monitoring stations throughout the city.

"There must be some way they could track emissions because you've got them in the annual reports clearly identifying that there are problems with metal emissions from the plant," Ms. Lukasik said.

"There has to be a way that they're able to at least figure out what's coming out."

Contacted afterward, a spokesperson for Dofasco acknowledged there have been problems at the plant but insisted the company is working to resolve them.

Andrew Sloan said Dofasco is investing $6 million on improvements, with the next stage of upgrades scheduled during an eight-day shutdown in May.

The work will include technology to allow operators to better gauge and control plant emissions, he said.

"We're concerned. We know we can't run here without the support of the community and we have sort of a heritage of being an environmental leader," Mr. Sloan said.

"We've had a couple of unfortunate incidents in the last little while. I think the real issue is that we are taking measures to address these."
 

smr714

RIP July 1969-April, 2009
Mar 15, 2004
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www.neopets.com
#4
Found this in Saturday's Paper.

_________________________________________________________________
Posted with permission from the Hamilton Spectator.
(http://thespec.com/News/Local/article/340062)
Special to the Spectator -- TheSpec.com - Local - Under a cloud
March 15, 2008

ArcelorMittal Dofasco has spewed out two more plumes of pollution in the last week. Now the Environment Ministry is getting involved -- and it could take tough action against the steelmaker.

Eric McGuinness
The Hamilton Spectator

(Mar 15, 2008)
The Ontario Ministry of the Environment is getting tough with ArcelorMittal Dofasco for repeatedly releasing clouds of pollution into the air over east Hamilton.

It says the company failed to immediately report an incident Monday, as is required. That's the day CEO Juergen Schachler defended Dofasco's environmental practices in an article on The Spectator's opinion page.

A second uncontrolled pollutant release took place Tuesday.

As a result, the ministry says it will tell the company "that if they cannot operate in a manner that ensures these types of emissions do not occur, then the ministry will order them to put in more effective pollution controls and improved operating practices."

It adds, "This matter will be reviewed by our investigations branch for possible violations of the Environmental Protection Act."

The latest issue is emissions from the blast furnace that feeds molten iron to the KOBM steelmaking facility, which has been a source of pollution complaints since 2003-04. At least three incidents from one or the other were reported last month, and Lynda Lukasik, executive director of Environment Hamilton, said she witnessed two more plumes Thursday.

Lukasik welcomed the statement the ministry issued in response to questions from The Spectator.

"Wow, finally a sign of the ministry taking action," she said.

Company spokesman Andrew Sloan repeated Schachler's assurance that significant investments will be made this year to reduce the sort of incident that occurred Monday.

Environment Hamilton, on behalf of two area residents, used Ontario's Environmental Bill of Rights last year to ask the ministry to review operating certificates that were supposed to regulate Dofasco air emissions.

Despite a 60-day limit on responses to such applications, the ministry took seven months to deny the request.

Sloan said Monday's emission resulted from molten iron being poured into an outdoor pit containing heavy snow from last weekend's big storm. The resulting eruption of steam and boiling water created a huge, red plume of iron oxide particles.

Lukasik notes the company admitted to pollution-control problems at the KOBM melt shop in its 2001 annual report, and said in 2004 it would install a new system by the end of 2007. But the new owner, Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, now tells the ministry it only plans to try to make the existing system work better.

Paul Miller, NDP MPP for Hamilton East-Stoney Creek, has written Environment Minister John Gerretsen asking him to order a review of ministry certificates of approval for emissions from the melt shop.

"The residents of east Hamilton are desperate for a solution to this problem," he said. "The horrendous visible emissions ... should be enough to warrant inspection and enforcement."

With the legislature to resume sitting next week, Miller says he and NDP environment critic Peter Tabuns will press Gerretsen and Premier Dalton McGuinty to hold Dofasco to its commitment to install new controls.

emcguinness@thespec.com

905-526-4650
 
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scotto

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Feb 15, 2004
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Province set to weigh in

The Hamilton Spectator
(Apr 18, 2008)
The Ontario Environment Ministry is expected to order ArcelorMittal Dofasco next week to take steps to stop clouds of pollution that result when excess molten iron is poured from its blast furnace onto the wet ground outside.

The order mentioned by Environment Minister John Gerretsen last week will not deal with more frequent emissions from the steelmaker's KOBM melt shop that have been the subject of public complaints.

Pouring iron into outdoor pits is called beaching, and one occurrence March 10 produced a dramatic red cloud photographed by a Beach Strip resident and published on the front page of The Spectator.

A ministry spokesperson said at the time that iron had been poured into a snowy pit, resulting in an eruption of steam that carried oxidized iron particles into the air.

Dofasco's Andrew Sloan said yesterday that steps have been taken to prevent a repeat, but he expects the ministry will order the company to investigate how the practice is handled at other plants around the world and how best to control emissions.
 

scotto

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Feb 15, 2004
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The Beach Strip
#7
I washed my house off yesterday and it was covered with something that was black. I only had to scrub in a few places and it came out pretty good.
 
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