Ontario to order pollution cuts at Hamilton coal tar recycler Rain Carbon

The province is ordering an east-end recycler of coal tar to come up with a plan to cut emissions of carcinogenic pollutants like benzene that have helped make Hamilton's bayfront a cancer risk hot spot.

Rain Carbon Canada is a Strathearne Avenue plant that recycles steelmaking leftovers like coal tar for use in other industrial products, such as aluminum. That process can emit benzene and benzo(a)pyrene, both cancer-causing pollutants.

The plant has also faced criticism for coal tar vapour" spills - including a huge yellow-green cloud that erupted from a leak at the plant in 2017 and resulted in $400,000 in environmental fines.

This month, Ontario's Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks announced it plans to issue a director's order to the company meant to set deadlines for improved pollution controls and new site specific" standards for the amount of benzene and benzo(a)pyrene released from the plant.

The move comes after the company alerted the province to an unspecified exceedance" of existing standards in April.

Jochen Bezner, who sits on a ministry-required citizen liaison committee for the company, applauded the enforceable deadlines."

Meeting deadlines for improvements is something I feel like the company has not always been the best at," said Bezner, who recalled the ministry publicly discussing a comparable European facility five years ago that emits far less benzene and benzo(a)pyrene.

Five years later, we still have the same question: if somewhere else in the world can basically operate on negligible emissions, why can't you do it?"

Local Rain Carbon technical manager Gord Gilmet declined to comment on the proposed order Friday.

But the company circulated the order to members of its citizen committee this month and said it would schedule a public meeting to discuss a required new site specific" standard for future emissions of the cancer-causing pollutants.

The order document also notes the company has already submitted an abatement plan" that proposes to replace aging tanks, improve leak detection and experiment with new product loading measures in a bid to cut emissions. The ministry also said the company has committed to carrying out upgrades" to air pollution equipment, generally.

Benzene and benzo(a)pyrene are a particular risk in Hamilton because of the city's heavy industrial emissions.

The city's two coal-fired steelmakers, ArcelorMittal Dofasco and Stelco, are the biggest polluters, but such emissions also come from industrial plants that use coal tar like Rain Carbon and Birla Carbon.

Hamilton is the worst hot spot in Ontario for the two contaminants, according to provincial modelling that pegs lifetime incremental cancer risk" at one in 10,000 along parts of the eastern bayfront and the beach strip, compared to one in 1 million on the outskirts of the city.

The proposed order - which is posted online for public comment until Dec. 4 - specifically sets a series of deadlines in 2023 for new emissions modelling, technology improvements, a public meeting and a formal request for a new site specific standard for emissions of the two pollutants.

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