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The regional director of public health, Dr Yv Bonnier-Viger (Archive photo)
Dr. Bonnier Viger explains that the concentrations are measured at the outlet of the chimneys and that it therefore remains risky to draw conclusions, particularly because of the winds and their direction.
To make a real measurement and have an idea of the problems that risk affecting people's health, we must have sensors there where people actually breathe.
A quote from Yv Bonnier Viger, regional director of public health in Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine
When this came out, did this thing go to the bay? Did it go to the Gulf or to a community further away than Port-Daniel? We don’t know, he adds.
What reassures me a little is that the ministry is doing its job, replies the doctor when asked whether he considers these atmospheric emissions worrying. It's certain that if we had wanted to create something that improves people's health, we wouldn't have made a cement factory, but we need cement, says the health professional.
The issue of nitrogen oxides was not addressed during the meeting organized by the regional public health department in August 2022, which focused specifically on sticky dust and its effects on health. We did not have the data from the chimneys at that time, explains Dr. Bonnier Viger.
Cements St. Marys was fined $12,000 in September for discharging water into Chaleur Bay in April 2021 wastewater with a sediment content of 380 mg/l.
This episode is in addition to a $10,000 sanction imposed on it in March for having emitted, on seven occasions in 2021, noise beyond the permitted limit at its Port-Daniel–Gascons factory. A cement plant subcontractor, who carried out illegal development work on Anse McInnis beach, Manutention Bellemare, was also fined $5,000 last spring.
The company also estimates that it has invested more than $10 million in measures aimed at improving the environmental performance of its Gaspé factory since it became responsible for the latter's activities in April 2021.
We are encouraged to see a considerable reduction in the number of environmental events when comparing 2023 to 2020, said a representative from Ciments St. Marys in an email. on Radio-Canada.
The neighbors of the McInnis cement plant are fed up
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