MONTREAL - The provincial government is ordering a company that stored PCBs illegally in the West Island to either clean up or have its assets seized.
Meanwhile the province has hired a security firm to keep people away from the Reliance Power Equipment facility in Pointe Claire, after it was revealed that the warehouse on Hymus has been stocking equipment and other goods contaminated with toxic PCBs since 1998.
"The concern is making sure that the site is safely protected by fencing and 24-hour surveillance to make sure that no unfortunate event will occur," said Quebec public health ministry representative Normand King.
The company has also been ordered to remove the toxins but how and when it will do that remains unclear.
It's even possible that the company could declare bankruptcy rather than pay for the costly clean-up.
Quebec's Ministry of the Environment inadvertently learned earlier this year that Reliance Power Equipment was storing and recycling PCB-contaminated materials at their facility at 86 Hymus Blvd. but had never informed any level of government of their work.
PCBs, also known as polychlorinated biphenyls, are fluids used as coolants but also have specific electrical properties useful in transformers and motors. They are also highly toxic and a possible cause of cancer.
After reports about the PCBs being stored in Pointe Claire surfaced in a Montreal newspaper, councillors in that city made it a key topic of discussion, especially since Reliance Power Equipment's Hymus Blvd. facility is located across the street from a residential neighbourhood.
The Environment Ministry learned of the PCB warehouse in March after about 1,000 litres of oil spilled at the Reliance facility.
“We called the Environment Emergency measures. They were able to block the water, to get too far, and they pumped everything that was leaked in the system," said Pointe Claire City Manager Nicolas Bouchard.
Two days later PCB-laced oil was found in Lake St. Louis, and the Ministry then inspected Reliance Power Equipment.
Officials discovered tens of thousands of litres of PCB-laced oil and water, and thousands of litres of contaminated soil in various containers.
On April 4, the same day Ministry workers were inspecting the storage facility, a Reliance truck carrying oil was spotted leaking in St. Jerome. Several hundred litres of oil contaminated with PCBs leaked onto a roadway and into a river.
Over the summer the Ministry has been to Reliance several times, ordering the company to repair holes to its fence and gate, and to post a 24-hour guard over the facility. Reliance has come up with several plans to secure its site, each of which was rejected by the Ministry as being inadequate.
The Ministry said Reliance had old electrical transformers kept in the open, in an unlocked, unguarded facility, and that its gate did not close.
The Ministry has given the company a final deadline of August 28 to come up with an effective plan to properly dispose of the contaminated material and to make sure its business is secure.
In the interim Yves-Francois Blanchet, the Environment Minister, has ordered a security company to patrol the site and make sure it is safe from intruders.
Experts in this type of chemical pollutant stressed that the situation must be immediately addressed.
“This is a chemical that does not degrade. This is a chemical that is literally forever. It must not be allowed in the environment because it lasts forever and pollutes us forever,” said environmentalist Daniel Green.
