Reply to @Ray Bungay: Methinks your neighbours Gordon Dalzell and the Irving Clan should remember me quite well Perhaps you should say Hey to them for me sometime N'esy Pas?
Request for public input on refinery pollution levels gets one response
Gordon Dalzell asked for, and received, lower sulphur and nitrogen oxide levels
Connell Smith· CBC News· Posted: Jun 19, 2020 6:00 AM AT
Irving Oil Refinery neighbour Gordon Dalzell was the only one who responded to a request for comment on the company's application for a new five-year air quality operating permit. (Connell Smith, CBC)
When New Brunswick environment officials asked for public submissions on air pollution from the largest oil refinery in Canada, just one person stepped forward.
But that one hand–written response from refinery neighbour Gordon Dalzell's to Irving Oil's application for a new five-year air quality operating permit was 200 pages long.
He asked that sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emission limits be stricter. And, he got it. The new limits, 4,500 tonnes annually in the case of each, are down 13 and 18 per cent respectively. The past five years have seen some serious problems at the refinery. They include a massive, October 2018 explosion and a butane leak earlier the same year that saw city streets blocked for days and 84 residents forced from their homes.
Dalzell asked environment officials why there had been no warning letters, orders or penalties issued by the department in connection with those failures.
The response: No enforcement actions or investigations were required. The refinery was meeting the requirements of its approval conditions at the time of the incidents and regulators are "satisfied with the manner in which occurrences were managed."
The Irving Oil Refinery in Saint John is the largest in Canada. Sulphur and nitrogen oxide limits will be lowered under the terms of the company's new air quality operating permit. (Roger Cosman, CBC)
In all, the department responded to 33 separate issues raised by Dalzell, a longtime clean air advocate, whose home is less than a block from the refinery fence.
They include the lack of access to the refinery's annual report, and to minutes of the local Community Liaison Committee.
He's disappointed to learn he was the only one to respond to the call for comment, which opened December 20 and carried through May 15.
"Just think if they'd had 50 submissions," said Dalzell. "We might actually see more stringent rules, more tougher conditions. We might actually have seen the place cleaned up even more than it has been over the years. Because they have made improvements. We have to make sure that's on the record."
While there have been improvements the refinery is the province's biggest single contributor of greenhouse gases at approximately three million tonnes annually
Dalzell said by not responding, New Brunswickers signal provincial regulators there's little interest in pushing the company for tighter air quality rules.
A spokesperson for the Department of Environment and Local Government said public comments and questions about air quality operating approvals are welcome anytime, and can be submitted through the department's website.
Irving Oil did not respond to a request for an interview on the new air quality regulations. The new air quality operating permit goes into effect July 16.
Reply to @David Amos: ?? Which means WHAT ???? Such a simple statement that says nothing !!
David Amos
Reply to @Lou Bell: Do tell Have you ever posted anything that truly mattered?
Ray Bungay
I live very close to this refinery and compared to 10 years ago I am not concerned with levels from that place. I grew up in Sydney, CB, where levels from both the steel plant in the 50's and 60's were 1000 times higher than any levels from the refinery. Irving has clean its act up very well as it reuses a lot of the Former pollution or safely burns it off . Moving on.
David Amos
Content disabled
Reply to @Ray Bungay: Methinks your neighbours Gordon Dalzell and the Irving Clan should remember me quite well Perhaps you should say Hey to them for me sometime N'esy Pas?
Brian Robertson Dalzell and his campaign against the refinery are a long time favorite of the CBC. The notoriety that have awarded him assures that he will never be satifisfied and the CBC will always have fodder for the activist base.
Mac Isaac
Reply to @Brian Robertson: While it's true that Mr. Dalzell has been a thorn in the side of environmental issues, it's important to remember not to be too rabid in either supporting or denigrating Mr. Dalzell or people like him who have legitimate concerns for our (as in ALL OF OUR!) environment. It's also important for Mr. Dalzell to temper his criticisms of companies such as the Irving and its subsidiaries lest he be seen as a "one trick pony" who is on a one man vendetta against that company. He does make some good points and I think this fact is demonstrated by the results his comments have generated in the Environment Dept.
Brian Robertson
Reply to @Mac Isaac: Which is what he is. When has he ever addressed an issue that did not involve the refinery? I have never witnessed one.
David Amos
Reply to @Brian Robertson: Oh So True
Tom Linton
I follow the news quite regularly. This is the first time I have heard of a request for input regarding the environmental licence for Irving Oil. Important matters as this need more than one little blurb in the news cycle to ensure the news gets out there.
Lou Bell
Reply to @Tom Linton: Sounds like you don't know if it was a blurb or what it was ! You just need to be moew aware of what's goin' on around you !
David Amos
Reply to @Tom Linton: I agree
Douglas James
There are a variety of ways of looking at this lack of public submissions. For one thing, it is highly unlikely that the government did much of anything to alert the public to the request for submissions. Every citizen of Saint John should have received a letter at the very least. Like all governments, this one knows how to communicate when it wants something and how to bury something when it feels compelled to do so.
Another way of looking at it might be to say the people of Saint John know the cards are stacked against them and there is, therefore, no point in responding to such requests even if they are well publicized.
The Environment department has been so deeply politicized as to be useless in any kind of 'watchdog' role. One only has to look at the west Saint John water fiasco to know this. It demanded no proper environmental assessment review of the South Bay well field project and, as a result, the wells are now threatened by briny drinking water and half the residents have had to be switched back to the Loch Lomand system. Of course the City of Saint John doesn't mention the reason on its website but, instead, in Orwellian language, describes the switch as a 'water servicing adjustment'.
When it comes to the refinery, if you live in Saint John or want to move here, about all one can do is accept the fact that industrial pollution is likely to shorten your life just as you are more likely to die early if you drank west side water, when cancer causing chlorination byproducts or TMH was significantly higher on the west side of the city without people ever being warned of the danger until it was too late to think about moving.
Douglas James
Reply to @Douglas James: To clarify 'if you drank west side water... for decades" as a recent study has shown that long term exposure to TMHs represents an increased risk of bladder and possibly colon cancer.
Lou Bell
Reply to @Douglas James: " As a recent study has shown " ?? So it wasn't known BEFORE THE STUDY ?? Either it was or it wasn't ! We're learning new things everyday , some good , some bad ! So don't try to spin new news as old news !!
David Amos
Reply to @Douglas James: I see you have picked up a fan of your work
Douglas James
Reply to @David Amos: Another person who cannot read unfortunately.
David Amos
Reply to @Douglas James: Can You???
ray fredette
Lol... Wonder who benefits from poor comms. Too funny.
David Amos
Reply to @ray fredette: I concur
Justin Gunther
I wasn't aware of any such request. It's probably because our provincial government doesn't know how to communicate properly. I hope this article isn't supposed to serve as a placeholder for why we don't ask "the people" things.
You don't know how to communicate, government. It's sad.
Justin Gunther
Reply to @Justin Gunther: Why does the official "Office of the Premiere" GNB website have no email address to contact the office of the premiere? Is it because these websites were designed deliberately to facilitate one-way communication only?
When I hit ctrl-f on that page and type in "email" I should immediately find the email address to the office of the Premiere. Stop acting like you're actually trying to listen to us. You're a joke.
Justin Gunther
Reply to @Justin Gunther: Oh there's a contact us button, excellent. I will cal today to see what the IVR is like and report back.
Justin Gunther
Reply to @Justin Gunther: I will admit, once you get past the office of the premiere homepage, which is a confusing barrage of scrolling images and dozens of poorly organized links, the contact us page is pretty easy to navigate.
Michel Forgeron
Reply to @Justin Gunther: On the "Office of the Premier" site click "Contact", you'll get the Premier's email, phone # etc.
Michel Forgeron
Reply to @Michel Forgeron: Sorry, I should have read your other posts!
Lou Bell
Reply to @Justin Gunther: So simple , yet so far away for some ! Try harder .
David Amos
Reply to @Justin Gunther: BINGO
Ben Haroldson
Like Donald Sutherland said on the dirty dozen while acting as a general," never heard of it "
David Amos
Reply to @Ben Haroldson: Donald Sutherland was raised in Saint John so he should know
David Amos
Reply to @David Amos:
Donald Sutherland honoured in his hometown of Saint John CTV Atlantic Published Wednesday, November 22, 2017 3:45PM AST
Brian Robertson
Dalzell and his campaign against the refinery are a long time favorite of the CBC.
The notoriety that have awarded him assures that he will never be satifisfied and the CBC will always have fodder for the activist base.
Which is what he is.
When has he ever addressed an issue that did not involve the refinery?
I have never witnessed one.
Another way of looking at it might be to say the people of Saint John know the cards are stacked against them and there is, therefore, no point in responding to such requests even if they are well publicized.
The Environment department has been so deeply politicized as to be useless in any kind of 'watchdog' role. One only has to look at the west Saint John water fiasco to know this. It demanded no proper environmental assessment review of the South Bay well field project and, as a result, the wells are now threatened by briny drinking water and half the residents have had to be switched back to the Loch Lomand system. Of course the City of Saint John doesn't mention the reason on its website but, instead, in Orwellian language, describes the switch as a 'water servicing adjustment'.
When it comes to the refinery, if you live in Saint John or want to move here, about all one can do is accept the fact that industrial pollution is likely to shorten your life just as you are more likely to die early if you drank west side water, when cancer causing chlorination byproducts or TMH was significantly higher on the west side of the city without people ever being warned of the danger until it was too late to think about moving.
Wonder who benefits from poor comms.
Too funny.
You don't know how to communicate, government. It's sad.
When I hit ctrl-f on that page and type in "email" I should immediately find the email address to the office of the Premiere. Stop acting like you're actually trying to listen to us. You're a joke.
Donald Sutherland honoured in his hometown of Saint John
CTV Atlantic Published Wednesday, November 22, 2017 3:45PM AST