The Pontiac Sorting Centre was hit with a $40,000 fine last week for non-compliance with provincial environmental regulations.
The infractions ranged from storing asphalt shingles outside to failing to waterproof the sorting area with concrete slabs.
But one infraction jumps out more than the rest: 650 tonnes of residual material was stored improperly. Not only that, but subsequent visits by the ministry have shown that the amount of residual waste that is improperly stored has grown.
The sorting centre focuses on construction waste by specializing in the sorting, processing and recycling of dry construction, renovation and demolition materials.
Representatives from the ministry of the environment began the investigation in 2013.
Since that time, the sorting centre has received 10 non-compliance notices amounting to one every seven months or so.
According to its website, “the Sorting Centre seeks to contribute to the region’s vitality and participate actively in its growth and development with a project that is both environmentally sound and consistent with an integrated waste management policy.”
It doesn’t seem very “environmentally sound” to store 650 tonnes of residual waste in an unauthorized spot. It seems downright flippant to continue adding to that pile of improperly stored waste in the intervening years.
For these infractions, the sorting centre was fined $37,500 and had to cover an additional $3,247 for the ministry’s legal bills.
More than 650 tonnes of improperly stored waste and 10 non-compliance notices gets a company just over $40,000 in fines?
That doesn’t seem like a reasonable deterrent.
Don’t forget that this is the same province that is planning on eliminating all organic waste from landfills by next year.
As a result of such a strict environmental strategy, many municipalities have had to bend over backwards to develop a waste management strategy that will appease the province so they can keep their waste management grants.
In the Municipality of Pontiac, for instance, many residents are upset that they will have to shoulder the cost of a door-to-door compost program, meanwhile a company that continues to thumb its nose at environmental regulations gets fined a measly $40,000.
How are Quebec residents supposed to react to something like this? They are being asked to make sacrifices for the environment while a company that claims to be “environmentally sound” gets a slap on the wrist for continually shirking its responsibility.
What about those who live near the sorting centre?
If the site isn’t properly waterproofed, will that impact the drinking water of those who are on wells nearby? What other environmental impacts could these infractions lead to?
We don’t know because nobody from the sorting centre could be reached for comment.
It’s all well and good to talk about making “a tangible contribution in the Pontiac region,” like the sorting centre website says. But if that contribution is just a landfill by another name, and a poorly managed one at that, is that the kind of contribution that’s needed in the Pontiac?
According to its website, “the Pontiac Sorting Centre strives to minimize the quantity waste entering landfills.”
What good is it to divert waste from landfills if it’s simply going to sit in another pile – in an environmentally damaging way, to boot – somewhere else?
Clearly, the sorting centre needs to take its own mission statement more seriously and become the environmental steward it claims to be.
Chris Lowrey
