The provincial government has approved an application from Guelph fiberglass manufacturer Owens Corning that will allow the company to release higher levels of a potential carcinogen than is permitted under new environmental regulations.
Hexavalent chromium is a metallic particulate produced in the manufacturing process at the plant. It has no smell and has been identified as a carcinogenic by Environment and Climate Change Canada. The cancer risk is related to long-term exposure to high concentrations.
“This is good news for us and our employees,” said Owens Corning spokesperson Chuck Hartlage. “It means we can continue operating in Guelph.”
Owens Corning applied in March of 2015 for a site-specific standard designation that will permit the company to exceed new limitations on the release of hexavalent chromium a by-product of their glass smelting process.
The compound may also sound familiar to those who have seen the movie Erin Brockovich – hexavalent chromium was the focus of the biographical film made in 2000.
New regulations that come into effect July 1 require Ontario companies to reduce the amount of hexavalent chromium they release into the environment by 99 per cent.
Hartlage said the company is committed to reducing the amount they release and are investing more than $10 million this year to modify four exhaust stacks, replace a furnace and upgrade manufacturing processes.
“The existing furnace will be replaced with improved technology and state-of-the-art air-combustion controls,” he said. “Our modeling predicts that these changes will result in an 88 percent reduction. Of course, we will continue to explore new and future technologies that will improve the process even more.”
The plant will shutdown temporarily in the last week of June and will re-open in mid August when the new furnace is installed and other upgrades are completed.
The site-specific standard will be in effect for 10 years and during that time the company is required to monitor the levels of hexavalent chromium they release.
Currently the annual average released from the Guelph facility is 0.0208 micrograms per cubic meter. That is expected to drop to 0.0024 micrograms per cubic meter after the plant restarts production in August. To fully comply with new regulations they would have to reduce emissions to 0.0014 micrograms per cubic meter.
“We’ll monitor in a variety of ways to demonstrate our compliance with the site-specific standard,” said Hartlage. “The testing will be completed in accordance with a plan approved by the ministry and the ministry will be invited to attend the testing.”
The application was not without it’s critics and there are a number of groups opposed to the exemption.
The Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change received 249 comments during a mandatory 60-day public consultation process. The majority of the comments came from Guelph citizens. Some were from other parts of Ontario and other provinces.
A number of petitions opposing the application were presented to the ministry.
A Care2 petition collected more than 19,000 signatures that included 150 citizens from Guelph and more than 1,300 from other parts of Canada. The rest were from the United States and 20 other countries.
An online petition launched through change.org by the group Concerned Citizens of Guelph has collected more than 1,250 signatures.
On February 16, 2016 a petition opposing the application with more than 180 names was tabled in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Efforts to contact Concerned Citizens of Guelph were not immediately successful.
“Public participation plays an important role in the ministry’s review of proposals for site-specific standards,” said Lindsay Davidson from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.
“The ministry has received no comments from the public since the decision was posted to the Environmental Bill of Rights Registry Friday last.”
