Clearing the air

Essroc cement plant in Picton on a clear day.

Cement plant pleads guilty to dust emission charges

Tempers flared briefly at a community advisory meeting at the Essroc cement plant last Tuesday, reflecting the precious and precarious status the factory has in the minds of County residents.

The cement plant, its stacks and spires perched above Picton Bay, is a fairly large employer in the County. To some, it is an important part of an economy that has almost completely lost its grip on the industrial sector.

But the value given to Essroc is tempered with the fear that a careless time in its history has led to more problems than it can fix.

Keijo Puusa has a persistent cough. So does his neighbour. Doctors haven’t been able to draw a connection between the coughs and cement dust, but Puusa can’t help but worry, especially when the windows of his home across the bay have been coated in dust from excess emissions of cement.

He worries that dust is a component of the air he breathes every day in the home he and his wife have retired to.

It was a year into taking up residence in his new home by the bay that Puusa started noticing the dust.

“The ministry of the environment, at first, wasn’t going to do anything,” said Puusa.

But the retired police officer knew his way around building a case, and began by taking pictures and approaching the commissioner of Ontario for climate change. The ministry took action.

To date Essroc has pleaded guilty to several noise and dust emmisions charges and has recieved fines totalling more than half a million dollars. Along with the financial penalty, there is an order for Essroc to put into place a plan to mitigate further dust and noise issues.

“It has improved. We have just recently sent in two other complaints to the ministry,” says Puusa. He doesn’t know if those complaints will lead to more charges, but he will remain vigilant.

Puusa doesn’t want to see the plant disappear. He appreciates its existence is important to the local economy, and that it brings in jobs. He just wants to make sure Essroc is not breaking any laws.

“They just have to comply with that law. That’s all. So I hope that with the order that’s in place, and the money that they’re going to spend, that they will comply. And if they comply, then hey, we’re all happy. And we understand that you’re going to have hiccups, and that’s okay. But when you have exceedances of 700 per year, and there’s 365 days in the year, that’s a lot,” says Puusa.

Essroc is trying to be a good corporate citizen. It has spent tens of millions of dollars on technologies and improved processes to reduce emissions.

Along with the community advisory meetings, it is a generous contributor to local events and activities in the County. In 2009, the company donated $225,000 toward the $12-million arena and community centre in Wellington.

But the contribution that allowed the company naming rights to the community centre totalled less than it will pay for its most recent charge: a fine of $200,000 plus a $50,000 victim surcharge that will be given to the municipality.

The fine was laid after Essroc pled guilty on December 4 to two charges under the Environmental Protection Act stemming from excessive dust emissions in April, 2013. It is not the first time the company has pleaded guilty to such charges. In April of this year, it was fined $350,000 plus a victim fine surcharge of $87,500 for excessive dust and noise violations in 2011 and 2012.

“We’ve made some substantial investments. We’ve had some training of the operating group. It’s a continuous improvement process that we have in place,” says plant manager Jeremy Black.

He is not aware of any new serious complaints or investigations.

“We have the odd phone call, things that we follow up on,” says Black. “We take everything seriously and investigate everything ad nauseum. And then we provide feedback… on what we found.”

Puusa agrees that the plant is getting better,

“There’s been great improvements. There were some management changes here. Some of the people that were here when we first started dealing with them are gone, and there are new people in place, and hopefully they’ll do the job.”