Revisiting a story from three weeks back in anticipation of more time spent outdoors (and the
upcoming court proceedings).
Dofasco facing 13 charges
(Hamilton Spectator, Meredith MacLeod & Matthew Van Dongen, Mar 28 2013)
The province has taken the rare step of charging ArcelorMittal Dofasco with repeatedly spewing excessive amounts of black smoke last summer.
The steelmaker faces 13 charges for exceeding visible pollution standards between April and August, according to the provincial Ministry of the Environment.
ArcelorMittal Dofasco declined to comment on the charges — the first of their kind laid against the company since local air emission regulations were updated in 2005.
“I’ve been working on this for 10 years and I’m not aware of another case of 13 charges being laid in court,” said Environment Hamilton executive director Lynda Lukasik.
She says her organization has been closely watching smokestack emissions from the plant since last summer, sending photos and documentation to the ministry on “almost a daily basis.”
The ministry revealed in January it was planning to issue an order against the steelmaker after more than 200 “opacity violations” were recorded as a result of emissions from aging coke ovens last year.
Opacity violations are lingering smoke plumes that are hard to see through. An exceedance is recorded when there’s a pollution plume that lasts more than six minutes with an opacity of more than 20 per cent.
Ministry spokesperson Jennifer Hall said Wednesday the charges are not meant to replace the preventive order, which should be issued this spring. That order will outline required repairs or changes to company equipment.
Lukasik says it has been a challenge to get the environment ministry to pursue charges, though the ministry’s abatement branch has started auditing emissions at the steelmaker.
The well-known activist was interviewed by ministry investigators about emissions on Oct. 21, when she says the company’s fan system and its backup failed.
Lukasik says the blackness of the smoke indicates higher levels of particulates, which can be inhaled and can lead to respiratory ailments.
Related:
'What have we been exposed to over the years?'
(Hamilton Spectator, Eric McGuinness, Dec 17, 2009)
+
Particulate Air Pollution and Inheritable Mutations in Mice: Possible Health Effects?
(Discovery Medicine, June 18 2009)
Germ-line mutations, DNA damage, and global hypermethylation in mice exposed to particulate air pollution in an urban/industrial location
(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Nov 20 2007)
Reduction of Particulate Air Pollution Lowers the Risk of Heritable Mutations in Mice
(Science, May 14, 2004)
Air pollution induces heritable DNA mutations
(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Oct 28 2002)
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