CHEMTURA AIR EMISSIONS

Their 2009 Annual Environmental report was received today via courier. To my wee mind it is both good news and bad news. Firstly the bad news: Chemtura are emitting 90,000 kg. of pollutants (toxins) to the atmosphere on an annual basis. This for the non metric minded is about 90 Tonnes or nearly 100 tons. These pollutants include Toluene, Xylenes, Acetone, Ammonia, Diisobutylene, Butane, Propane and on and on. The other bad news is that Toluene, Xylenes and Nitrogen Oxides are at concentrations in the air of 88%, 79% and 57% of the Ministry of the Environment Point of Impingement Limit. In other words at their property line they are very close to being illegal.

Now the good news is substantial. Chemtura have reduced their air emissions since 1991 from 350 Tonnes per year to the current 90 Tonnes. Secondly their odourous emissions (fumigations) have been dramatically improved. Credit for this may go to Chemtura, or it may go to the Duke St. "rowdies" who sucessfully sued them eight or nine years ago. Finally credit should also be given to Gerry Heideburt and Ron Ormson of CPAC. They are the two in house technical people dealing with air emissions.

Now the caveats. My understanding of the setting of air standards is that they share the same huge weakness that water standards share. This inherent and grotesque weakness is that each individual chemical air standard is based on the ridiculous and fantastic assumption that this particular chemical is the ONLY chemical, all by itself, in the atmosphere at any one time. This is fantasy land and hence my opinion is that the Ministry of the Environment, Health Departments and politicians of all stripes are talking through their hats when they baldly state that local industrial air emissions are not hazardous to our health.