I live close by this…

I live close by this facility and have a number of concerns. We were alerted in 2014 when sirens sounded due to an explosion at the facility. An employee received second degree burns after a canister exploded, blowing out block walls and two large hinged doors. The company was ultimately fined $65,000 dollars for negligence in the incident.

After learning recently that Digital Specialty Chemicals intends to expand its operations and output by 45 per cent, I am concerned that they do not have an Environmental Emergency Plan. This is a federally-legislated requirement under the Environmental Emergency Regulation. There are more than 240 substances listed under that regulation that require any company processing those substances to have such a plan.

This is tricky since the proponent’s ECA has redacted more than 50 per cent of the chemicals from the public view on their application. Hence, I urge the MECP to investigate if Digital Specialty Chemicals needs to indeed have an Environmental Emergency Plan in place since you have access to the unredacted application.

There are numerous chemicals and substances coming in and out of the facility according to 2018 NPRI data. We don't know where these substances are coming from and where they are going to. Only a small portion are being used at the facility. Are these chemicals being transported by truck through our residential areas? Is the company serving as a depot for it's parent company Entegris for chemicals that Digitial Specialty Chemicals doesn’t even use? Perhaps Entegris is taking advantage of less lax Canadian environmental policies to dispose of of volatile organic chemicals?

These questions need to be investigated before this application can proceed.