Montreal suburb axes agreement with company to dump more hazardous waste in municipality

The city of Blainville is tearing up its agreement with an American company to expand a hazardous waste landfill in the municipality, according to Radio Canada. 

The suburb north of Montreal has allowed Stablex to bury hazardous materials, such as batteries and laboratory waste, in its dump site for the past 40 years.

The agreement would have allowed the company to bury double the amount of waste, meaning an additional eight million cubic metres over 40 years — four times the volume of Montreal's Olympic Stadium.

Half of the hazardous materials received by Stablex come from Ontario and the northeastern U.S.

The Blainville site is the only one of its kind in Quebec.

In a unanimous decision, elected officials rejected the agreement Tuesday evening during a municipal council meeting, saying the project poses risks at various levels and was widely criticized. 

"Our decision is the result of careful listening, rigorous analysis, serious discussion and the necessary hindsight," said Blainville Mayor Liza Poulin.

"We cannot reconcile the interests of our citizens with such a redevelopment project."

The agreement, conditional on obtaining environmental authorizations, was torn up before Quebec's environmental watchdog, the Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement (BAPE), could release its report. 

The BAPE was expected to submit its final report to Quebec Environment Minister Benoit Charette by Sept. 8 at the latest and made public within 15 days.

Plan would encroach on wetlands 

The agreement, signed in March 2020, would have allowed Stablex to expand the dump site into the heart of environmentally valuable peat bogs.

The land in question includes 54 hectares of forest and nine hectares of wetlands, all within a kilometre of agricultural irrigation basins. 

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Elected officials, citizens and the union of agricultural producers have been expressing their opposition to the expansion project for several months. 

Stablex has insisted its process is safe "in perpetuity." Once filled to capacity, it says a cell is closed with a liner consisting of a sand separation layer, a layer of compacted clay and a waterproof geomembrane.

But Quebec's Environment Ministry expressed concern about what would happen when the company ceased operations.

On Tuesday evening, the Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM) congratulated Blainville on its decision.

Joël Arseneau, environment critic for the Parti Québécois, also welcomed the move. 

"Blainville made a courageous decision, and the right one," he said. 

The company has not yet reacted to the municipality's decision.