Call for air quality crackdown TheSpec.com - Local - Call for air quality crackdown
Residents slag ministry inaction

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."