Pollution complaints hit Coco Paving’s west Hamilton plant again

Resident complaints about odours and apparent brown plumes" from Coco Paving have spiked two years after the west-end asphalt plant said it had repaired an emissions control problem.

The latest spate of complaints has prompted the province to promise mobile air-monitoring in the area and ask Coco to hire a consultant to check the Main Street West plant's pollution controls.

Area resident Ian Borsuk said he complained to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks about particularly bad" brown emissions from the plant last November, as well as this March and twice last month.

May was pretty bad, but it's been happening throughout the spring," said Borsuk, who also works for Environment Hamilton. That advocacy group has fielded separate complaints about smoky pollution and acrid odours.

I had one neighbour say to me one day she was pretty sure there was a fire in Kirkendall (neighbourhood) ... But no, it was Coco Paving."

In late April, west-city resident Elizabeth Wong also emailed The Spectator to report dense brown plumes" billowing out of the asphalt plant stack. It did not look right."

In 2019, similar complaints spurred a provincial inspection. Company spokesperson Anthony Rossi said at the time that Coco found a few damaged filter bags" in the plant pollution control system that were fixed immediately."

Rossi said Thursday by email that the west-end plant is in compliance" with its legal environmental requirements.

He did not specify whether any further equipment issues have been found, but added no complaint is ever invalid" and that the company will respond to all questions" about its operations. This is why we do ongoing maintenance on our equipment and have a consultant verify the works," he wrote.

The provincial Environment Ministry confirmed via email it received multiple complaints" about Coco Paving in May, spurring two inspections that month.

As a result, the province will test emissions around the plant with mobile monitoring equipment, said spokesperson Jennifer Hall.

The ministry is also asking the company to do more frequent checks on its baghouse" fabric filter pollution controls and also hire a consultant to ensure the technology is working properly.

The type of pollution control equipment used in the plant is of the same design originally approved under a one-page provincial certificate first issued to the plant back in the early 1980s. By comparison, other Coco asphalt sites in Ontario must abide by more comprehensive approval documents listing specific conditions and requirements.

Hall said the company completed an emissions summary and modelling report in 2019 that indicates the facility is meeting appropriate standards."

But she added Coco has agreed to apply to amend and modernize" its old environmental compliance approval document to match conditions required of similar facilities."

The ministry told The Spectator in 2019 that the company would apply to update its environmental approvals. It was not immediately clear why that hasn't happened yet.

Matthew Van Dongen is a transportation and environment reporter at for The Spectator. mvandongen@thespec.com