Residents in Trois-Rivières, Que., have a recycling plant for a neighbour. They say it's far from green

Frustrated neighbours in Trois-Rivières, Que., are sparing no effort to make their case that the province should think twice before doing business with a glass recycling company near their homes — collecting water samples and even using drones to prove that the operation is far from environmentally friendly.

Gilbert Cabana and his neighbours have a wide array of skill sets. 

Cabana is a professor in the science and environment department at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR). One of his neighbours is a former investigator with the Sûreté du Québec. Another has a drone to take aerial photos. Others include biologists and market gardeners.

Earlier this summer, they met up, looking for ways to reclaim the quality of life that they say has been compromised by operations at Groupe Bellemare, a local company that offers concrete delivery, abrasives, minerals, and, in the last few decades, has branched out into recycling.

Its neighbours say they are tired of bearing the brunt of Bellemare's business model and have been working to keep the company in line, especially since Quebec is planning to expand its deposit programs for glass and Bellemare stands to be one of the companies taking on much more glass recycling.

"We're like a bunch of spies that meet up at night in a garage," Cabana told Radio-Canada's Enqûete program. 

"I know that we need to recycle things, but we could say that the idea is green globally, but brown locally. The 'local' being here."

The neighbours' concerns about the business appear to be warranted.

Since 1994, the province's Environment Ministry has issued 49 notices of non-compliance to Groupe Bellemare. In the last seven years, the ministry also received 446 complaints for noise, odours and dust. 

Prior to 2009, companies in Quebec were allowed to store materials directly over the water table, yet the recycling plant still violated provincial regulations, according to the ministry. Those violations included discharging non-compliant waste like tar barrels, charred animal parts and remains of a burnt pigsty.

When the rules changed, Bellemare did not adjust its practices, according to the ministry.

To force the company to shut down its dumping site, the Quebec government filed an injunction request, triggering an 11-year court battle, in which the province charged that Groupe Bellemare was operating "in apparent illegality," causing "serious prejudice."

Quebec continued issuing non-compliance notices even as the court battle dragged on. In 2015 and 2016, inspectors noted the absence of a surface capable of collecting liquid from certain wastes. According to the Environment Ministry, the materials were placed directly on the ground.

In 2021, the two parties reached an out-of-court settlement and Bellemare agreed to shut down its dump site in 2024 but did not acknowledge the ministry's accusations as being true.

The same year the settlement was reached, Recyc-Québec awarded Bellemare a $2-million subsidy. Recyc-Québec is the recycling authority tasked with helping the province reduce waste. It is managed by the Environment Ministry — the same ministry  that took the company to court.

"The right hand isn't talking to the left hand," said Michel Lafleur, one of the biologists who lives near the company.

"It's not just ironic. It's a mockery."

In an interview with Enquête, Francis Vermette, the operations director for Recyc-Québec, said he was "a little surprised" by the number of non-compliance notices issued to the company.

"I'll admit that I'm just learning about the number of notices," Vermette said. "Listen, we'll absolutely make some verifications."

Two days after Vermette's interview, a spokesperson for Recyc-Québec told Radio-Canada that the subsidy had not yet been given to Bellemare. That would require final approval from the Environment Ministry.

The subsidy, if granted, would be used to support the company's efforts to separate coloured glass from clear glass.

$40K of fines over last decade

Groupe Bellemare is a family business that started in 1959 and is managed by three brothers. According to its website, it has more than 500 employees across several divisions. On the website, the company says it "attaches great importance to its social and environmental role."

"It's something we're passionate about, [protecting] the planet. I have kids. I have a family. Those are values that are important to us," Serge Bellemare, one of the company's co-presidents, told Radio-Canada in March 2019.

Groupe Bellemare declined multiple requests for an interview with Enquête. 

The company's site, which was originally used as an open-pit sand mine, is about half a square kilometre. It includes glass, piles of sand, piles of construction materials from its sorting centre and a landfill site undergoing revegetation.

The open-air plant currently handles 25 per cent of the recyclable glass in the province. That percentage is expected to double in 2025, when the province rolls out its expanded bottle deposit system.

The homes closest to Bellemare's stretch of land are 329 metres away.

According to Enqûete, the company raked in more than $100 million in revenue in 2010. Since 2012, it has been slapped with $40,000 worth of fines — a relative drop in the bucket. 

"It could be viewed as a licence to pollute," said lawyer Anne-Julie Asselin, whose firm specializes in class-action lawsuits pertaining to the environment.

She describes the company as an "environmental delinquent."

She says Recyc-Québec didn't break any laws by awarding the $2-million subsidy, but she says ideally, the law would change, making the company inadmissible, similar to how companies found guilty of corruption are no longer eligible for public contracts.

Recyc-Québec has appointed the Quebec Beverage Container Recycling Association (QBCRA) to manage the expanded deposit system. 

The QBCRA declined Enquête's request for an interview, but wrote an email saying it is finalizing agreements with companies that will soon be handling 200,000 tonnes of glass annually.

According to the QBCRA, these companies will need to respect various norms and have the necessary municipal and environmental permits.

'Very high contamination' in water likely due to site, expert says

During a walk through the wetlands near his home, one of the residents, who's a retired biologist, noticed a trickle of water coming from Bellemare seeping into a stream.

He also detected a smell. 

Later, he was able to get footage of a pipe that goes into a small stream that leads to the wetlands.

Through the use of a drone, Étienne Boulay, another neighbour, was able to confirm that a dike separates the wetlands from the industrial site.

That's where Cabana, the university professor, came in. The stream leads to the back of his home of 20 years.

After having measured the water's conductivity, which is a general way to assess water quality, Cabana collected six samples from the stream near his home and six others from four streams that are further away.

"It's a really good approach," said Jinxia Liu, an environmental chemistry professor with McGill University.

Other experts contacted by Enquête said Cabana's methodology was solid.

The lab is internationally recognized for its ability to detect PFAS, a class of chemicals used in everything from cookware to food containers and makeup.

The concentration of PFAS in the water near Bellemare was 60 times higher than what was found in the other streams.

The experts agree there's a link between the company's activities and the sample results.

Liu said the samples showed the water had components that come from landfill leachate, which is liquid that forms when rainwater filters through landfill waste.

"So, right away, when I saw the numbers, [I realized] that it's very likely that these water samples are linked to these activities," she said.

Dust concerns near organic blueberry farm

Boulay and his partner spent years before finding an ideal location to set up their organic blueberry patch, their dream project.

When they purchased the land in 2009, Bellemare's site was a quieter operation. But things changed when it began recycling glass in an open-air factory in 2017, according to Boulay.

"At first, you tell yourself those are just the exceptions. But the exception became the rule," he said.

He said their white uniforms would routinely turn black after time spent working in the field, making him wonder what was in that dust.

Lafleur says there are other effects.

"It burns the eyes, it irritates the throat. We have a hard time breathing," he said.

Lafleur and the other neighbours began asking questions about the dust and potential health hazards that come with it. 

An analysis by the public health authority for the Mauricie region was published last year, which ruled that it was impossible at that point to come up with "a precise assessment of the health risks."

Following recommendations from public health, Bellemare came up with a plan to address the complaints that had piled up. The company has since hired firms to conduct noise tests, collect smoke samples and evaluate the odours emanating from the glass recycling process.

Residents were able to obtain an inspection report from the Environment Ministry through an access-to-information request.

They found the results troubling.

The ministry's inspector had collected samples from a large, dark mountain of iron silicate. It contains heavy metals like arsenic.

Enquête wanted to measure the level of soil contamination around the residents' homes. It enlisted the services of Gérald Zagury, a professor in the department of civil, geological and mining engineering at Montreal's École Polytéchnique.

Samples were collected at different locations: the homes of three of the company's neighbours, the wetlands that separate the company's site from the residential area and another location nearby, for comparison's sake.

Boulay and his partner knew the tests were risky, given what it could reveal about the soil in and around their blueberry patch.

"I'm jeopardizing my reputation and my field's reputation to denounce a situation that shouldn't exist," Boulay said, prior to the test results being revealed. "If I have to pay a price, I'll pay it. There's no way I can tolerate this."

The results did not show a higher concentration of metals around the homes or the blueberry field — a major relief for Boulay. 

The sample from the wetlands was less encouraging. The amount of arsenic found was not above the norm, but Zagury found concentrations of molybdenum and copper that are two to four times higher than what's recommended for a residential area.

A surprising result, according to him, given that the soil in wetlands is typically healthy.

Zagury said prolonged exposure to molybdenum can lead to diarrhea, vomiting, neurological problems as well as joint and inflammation issues. But given that people only walk through the wetlands, he said the risk is minimal.

Only two samples were taken from the wetlands, so Zagury is not able to say with certainty that Bellemare is to blame for the high levels of molybdenum and copper. However, the high concentration of those metals correlated with the presence of iron silicate, which is present on Bellemare's site.

Zagury had this advice for the recycling plant: "I would ask the company to be more careful knowing that iron silicate contains a lot of metals and to make sure there is no dust being released in the area.

'We're following the situation very closely'

Last month, Boulay spotted changes on Bellemare's site, thanks to his drone.

Green tarpaulins now cover the dark mountain of iron silicate. The dike separating the company's site from the wetlands has been reinforced with stone, exactly where his neighbour noticed the water leak.

In a written statement, the company said it invested two million dollars to put those measures in place and the results will allow public health officials to conduct a more thorough analysis. The company also stressed that it is co-operating with provincial authorities.

A committee made up of representatives of the company, the Environment Ministry, public health, the city of Trois-Rivières, as well as citizens has been formed.

"We're following the situation very closely," said Marie-Josée Godi, the public health director in the Mauricie region. "The company is very co-operative."

In July, Martin Côté, the executive director for Bellemare, said the company was in talks with the QBCRA, the association that manages the province's deposit system, and he hopes a newer, more modern optical sorting centre will open within 12 months on its site in Trois-Rivières.

"It will obviously be a closed building located here," Côté said at the time, adding that the company wants to "minimize problems related to dust." 

Glass from the expanded bottle deposit program will be less contaminated than the glass from people's blue recycling bins, which currently make up a large majority of what Bellemare processes.

The company said neighbours will benefit from the larger influx of cleaner glass onto the site.