HISTORIC Pollution

Sault Ste. Marie has a long history of industrial pollution. In 1987, the ministry established an air quality index (AQI) station that measured multiple parameters including very fine particulate (PM 2.5) which is a recognized serious health hazard. This AQI station was located on the former property of the William Merrifield Public on Patrick St. near Algoma Steel Inc. (ASI). The residents in nearby neighbourhoods like Bayview around the steel plant had experienced greater health concerns from industrial operations for decades. From 1995 to 1997 the increases in the annual averages of VOCs (such as benzene) for an air monitoring station on Bonney St. and the AQI station at Patrick St. showed a similar trend to the increasing VOC emissions inventories for ASI during those same years. 

In 2000, there were 32 days where the PM 2.5 readings at Bonney St. were above a proposed 30ug/m3 24-hr Canada Wide Standard (CWS) with the annual readings averaging 59.1 ug/m3 and a maximum value of 178 ug/m3. ASI's estimated plant emission factor (g/tonne coke) for PAHs (including benzo-a-pyrene) in 2000 was 105.8 compared to 17.5 (Dofasco, Hamilton), 37.3 (Lake Erie Works, Nanticoke) and 36.2 (Stelco Hilton Works, Hamilton).  That year, ASI installed a benzene vapour capture system at their by-products plant which was claimed to have reduced benzene emissions by 90 percent.

Since the AQI station at Patrick St. was close to ASI and the industrial zone, the station continued to experience higher levels of contaminants causing lower air quality values. In 2003, the ministry decided that this location did not reflect the overall air quality of the city. Some of the station's components that were required to measure AQI (including PM 2.5) were relocated to a new station at Sault College. The location at Sault College was over twice the distance away and at a higher elevation from where the emissions were released from ASI. The relocation created more concerns from the public of how air quality issues were being considered around ASI since government regulations and enforcement in Ontario had been historically slow compared to the United States. Ensuring local air quality around Algoma Steel demanded local action.

In 2004 while campaigning for the federal election, former NDP M.P. Tony Martin received many complaints regarding the air quality. The AQI range for poor air quality occurred when the reading was calculated between 50-99. In April of 2004 there was a reading of 99, and a reading of 150 in July which was dismissed by the MOE (Ministry of Environment, now MECP) as "raw data". A large crowd of residents in September of 2004 attended a public meeting that was held at Bayview School. There was a call to action but at that time there were no effective programs or structure for residents to launch formal complaints, understand the decision-making process, and the various contaminants in the air. In November, there was a meeting with the MOE and the Algoma Health Unit (AHU, now APH) that resulted in an agreement to conduct a special air study. By the end of December in 2004, the ministry gave the responsibility to ASI to maintain and operate its two monitors at Bonney and Patrick Street. 

In 2005, to address the public complaints in Bayview, M.P. Martin established a steering committee that included Cecilia Fernandez, Anne O'Connor, David Trowbridge, and Lea DeVries-Bothwell. The committee's goal was to study the issues, communicate with residents and establish a pathway to providing an effective system to resolve current issues and provide a direction for future concerns. The committee faced many obstacles which included access to the Bonney St. air monitoring data that was controlled by ASI. They were unable to obtain the data from this station which was once the responsibility of the ministry. By the beginning of December, they released their report entitled, "Breathing Easy: A Report on the Potential for Community Cooperation in Air Quality Issues in the Bayview Area of Sault Ste. Marie". The report highlighted concerns and recommended a Good Neighbour Agreement, more public consultations, community education and involvement, industry report cards and a community-based monitoring program like Environment Hamilton's program called Stackwatch.

In 2006, several requests were made to meet with ASI representatives before the company finally confirmed at the last minute that they would attend. They listened to public concerns but dismissed the issues indicating that the ministry had not fined them for noncompliance. The ministry conducted their special air study called, "Report on Sault Ste. Marie 2006 Particulate Monitoring Special Study" in March to October of 2006. There were six stations in the study, three were in the Bayview neighbourhood. The station closest to ASI on Bonney St. registered over 1800 exceedances. By the time the ministry released the results of the study to the public in 2007, the monitoring station at Bonney St. had already been moved further away to Wallace Terrace at the end of 2006. In 2007, air quality issues continued, and residents were encouraged by M.P. Martin and David Trowbridge to document their concerns. M.P. Martin stated he wanted provincial and federal "Right to Know" legislation to hold the industry accountable to notify the public when the air quality was poor and what they are breathing.

By 2008 there were increasing public concerns that ASI (now known as Essar Steel Algoma Inc., ESAI) was given the responsibility of maintaining and operating the air quality stations back in 2004. In June of 2008, a local resident commented on an ESAI (Essar) proposal (EBR 010-3759) which was to postpone the installation of a permanent baghouse on the idled No. 6 Blast Furnace: 

"We are not comfortable with the Steel Plant hosting and being responsible for the maintenance of monitoring stations, be it on their property or not. The fox guarding the hen house comes to mind". 

In 2008, previous data compared to MOE's historical data showed discrepancies with a third-party company, Conestoga-Rover & Associates (CRA) who were hired by Essar to operate and maintain the air quality stations. To verify the discrepancies, the ministry (MOE) conducted an 11-month co-located audit study at the Wallace Terrace station from July 2008 to May 2009. There were some results that varied significantly between the MOE lab and the lab used by CRA. Most notably, the values for the carcinogenic contaminant, benzo-a-pyrene (BaP) were about 52% lower compared to the values from the MOE lab. The study attributed some of the discrepancies of the data in the study to differences in laboratory analysis. Although the study's author recommended further review to determine if the data discrepancies were due the use of different labs or their analysis, no similar study was performed to confirm it. 

In a CLC committee meeting on November 12, 2009, further requests were made by David Trowbridge (CLC Public Member) to Essar (ESAI) committee representatives for additional air quality monitoring data since it was still limited to a single hour. There was also a specific request to include air quality monitoring data for benzene and benzo-a-pyrene data on the company's website. In the meeting minutes ESAI stated, "The company will consider this request and take measures to include additional air quality data to the website for public access". 

At their open house on November 23, 2009, ESAI announced that they were considering replacing their aged No. 7 coke oven battery installed in 1959 (rebuilt in 1975) due to performance issues. They felt the technical challenges and high cost made it not feasible to invest in pollution control measures to meet the current standards. The timeframe to replace the battery became a prominent public concern since coke oven batteries are a high source of particulate and carcinogenic compounds like benzene and benzo-a-pyrene.

The MOE's co-located audit conducted in 2008-2009 was released in April of 2010.