Styrolutions considers appeal of order which shutdown Sarnia plant

May 3, 2024

Says closure could affect gas production in Eastern Canada

INEOS Styrolutions says the Ministry of the Environment’s time table for action to deal with benzene emissions at its Sarnia plant are “simply unrealistic” and is considering an appeal.

And the company says it’s shutdown could have wider economic impact than just at the plant.

Styrolutions was shutdown by the Ministry of the Environment in the wake of high benzene emissions into the air which began April 16. The cancer-causing chemical made a number of members of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation – right across the road from the plant – ill enough to go to the emergency department for treatment. April 26, Aamjiwnaang officials declared a state of emergency in the community after another reading at the bands air monitors which was 424 times higher than the Ontario regulations.

The company denies it exceeded the provincial standards saying its state-of-the-art air monitoring system did not detect high levels of benzene in the air around the plant.

But May 1, the ministry effectively shutdown the plant on Tashmoo Road by pulling its Environmental Compliance Approval and outlining what Styrolutions has to do to start production again.

“The ECA has been amended to add conditions that the facility must meet including the suspension of production operations at the facility, removal of all benzene storage from the site, repair of leaky equipment and installation of full vapour control on vessels containing benzene, and a comprehensive benzene monitoring and community notification plan,” ministry officials said in a news release.

Styrolutions must submit a start-up plan to the ministry for review before it can resume normal operations.

Thursday and Friday, company officials met with Chief Chris Plain of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation and Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley. Bradley says discussion was around “their options and what they may or may not do” as well as “the profitability of the plant.”

In a statement late Friday, company officials reiterated the air monitoring system which the ministry specified for the plant, detected no emissions exceeding the prescribed limits in the weeks before the initial MECP order issued April 16.

Officials say Styrolutions “has the expertise and the intent to continue to implement planned improvements on benzene emissions abatement at the site, safely and effectively.”

But, the company says the ministry orders will require “significant investments” and “the required timetable for actions is simply unrealistic.

“Our engineers and technical teams have raised significant concerns about safety and elevated emissions if the ministry insists on the ill-informed timelines contained in its May 1, 2024, order.”

The statement goes on to say the ministry “refuses to discuss a technically safe timetable” for improvements and that a new emission standard was applied retroactively.

MECP Spokesman Gary Wheeler told The Independent in an email “There is no specific deadline for the start-up.”

Styrolution says it is considering its options.

“We are considering whether to appeal the order from the MECP to enable us to safely and effectively, implement newly-designed equipment systems on site, to meet the new emission standards, address the concerns of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation and to continue to serve the wider economic needs of Canada.”

That economic piece could be significant according to Sarnia’s mayor.

Styrolution uses benzene – a by product of making gasoline – from other Sarnia companies such as Imperial. Bradley says with Styrolutions closed – likely for months – to deal with the ministry order, those companies will have to find another place for the benzene. “If the (Styrolutions) plant can’t function, where do those companies ship their benzene?”

INEOS Styrolutions officials say their plant shutdown could have an effect on gas production and the local and national economy.

“The Sarnia plant is now closed, the flow of all products into and out of the site is currently stopped and the plant cannot be restarted until the requirements set forth in the May 1, 2024, order is satisfied. This will likely impact the refineries that produce most of Eastern Canada’s gasoline.”

Bradley says during the Friday meeting, Stryolutions officials said the cost to deal with the benzene emissions is high. They suggested, Bradley said, the possibility of appealing the May 1 order which shut the plant down. Styrolution has until May 15 to make that decision.

Bradley says the company is looking at “all its options” including whether it should close the plant. He’s concerned about the economic impact of that to the community and on the petrochemical companies in the area. However Bradley is firm, the company needs to meet provincial standard.

“I want to see them get to those (provincial) standards and keep the jobs in the community and I don’t want to see people’s health impacted.”

‘We’re not backing off’ say Wanstead neighbours

May 3, 2024

w WANSTEAD — Dave King at the April 29 council.

Heather Wright/The Independent

Wanstead residents concerned about the prospect of a livestock trailer washing operation near their homes have been given a temporary reprieve.

The Wanstead businessman behind the project – Pat Belanger – was slated for a Plympton-Wyoming planning meeting Monday to have the property on Leyton Street rezoned to allow the operation. But after about 30 residents waited an hour-and-a-half for the hearing, they were told by Mayor Gary Atkinson the application had been deferred. The landowners in the area wrote letters to council, voicing their concerns about the washing facility which was also sent to Belanger’s planners, Monteith and Brown. “All the information will be taken under consideration and addressed,” said Atkinson.

“We’re not backing off,” said Dan Moffat, on the residents at the meeting.

Moffat tells The Independent he worries the project will devalue the property in the area. A letter from real estate agent Leo Shanahan backs up the statement. He says the property values around the proposed operation could drop between 25 and 50 per cent.

Other residents in the audience were seen holding real estate company folders with their own evaluations of their property should the project go through.

Jackie Kay and her husband have lived in Wanstead for decades. Their property abuts Belanger’s. Kay says there is already an agri business in the area – Wanstead Farmers Co-Op – but this operation would be different.

“In the summer, in the spring, it gets pretty busy out there with the guys taking their crop in, but it’s doesn’t last, you know; it’s not a continual thing.” Kay says the trailer washing station would operate year round.

By far the largest concern for the residents is water. All of the homes, and the proposed operation, operate on a well system.
Dave King’s property abuts the land Belanger owns. He’s worried the dirt and animal feces washed away from the trailers will make it into someone’s well. “So you’re going to keep putting all that manure on that gravel (laneway) and every time it rains, it’s going to leach out, and leach out to everybody’s property.”

Most concerning, says King, is a well not more than 30 feet away from the proposed trailer washing facility. That’s Melody Halliday’s well. “The existing gravel lot is built up to a higher elevation than my property,” she wrote in a letter to council.

“Every time it rains, water runs off this lot and into my backyard, flooding it. Nothing is stopping contaminants from washing into my yard, right where my water well is located.”
What is her biggest worry? “Dying from E coli poisoning,” she says bluntly.

The plan for the livestock trailer washing station has been in the works for some time. The planners report on the rezoning of the property says Cornerstone Group – which specializes in washing and disinfecting barns, industrial facilities, cleaning heavy equipment, bio security consulting and livestock culling, received approval from the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks for a water recycling system to be used at the facility.

That, according to Belanger’s planner Joel Steele, from Monteith and Brown, received approval in 2021.

The planning consultant’s report for Plympton-Wyoming adds the operation would use “existing wells for potable water” and to top up the agricultural vehicle washwater system.

The washing area would be built on one side of Leyton Street, according to the plan, and the drying facility would be on the other parcel of land owned by Belanger.

In order for the proposal to move ahead, Plympton-Wyoming must agree to rezone the land. The town’s planning consultant, Jordan Fohkens, said in his report; “While we generally support the proposal, we are of the opinion that several revisions should be made to provide planting strips and setback between a livestock trailer parking area and residential use.”

But, the discussion on the proposal was delayed by Belanger. His planner, said they want to deal with some of the concerns of the neighbours.

“It is our intent is to review all those comments and determining the ways that they can be mitigated through measures like noise fencing or buffering or other measures available and how those could be applied to address them in the submission and review and revise the submission (to council) if needed.”

It’s not clear when the application might return to council.

Eight arrested near Mandaumin and Churchill for armed robbery

May 3, 2024

Blake Ellis/The Independent

Eight people were arrested in a home in Plympton-Wyoming after an armed robbery in Sarnia.

Lambton OPP’s police board heard Monday there was a report of an armed robbery in Sarnia April 25. A description of a vehicle was sent to Lambton OPP and officers identified it in the area of Churchill Line and Mandaumin Road.

The vehicle fled and the police did not pursue it, concerned about safety.

The vehicle was later located by police at a drug house in the area of Mandaumin Road and Churchill Line.

Lambton OPP set up to observe the area and when the vehicle tried to flee, police were able to stop the vehicle and arrest eight people.

Police seized 11 ounces of cocaine, three ounces of fentanyl and a loaded 38 calibre hand gun.
There was a brief moment where officers had a barricaded person, but this situation was resolved quickly and safely, said Acting Staff Sergeant Rick Mathieson of the Lambton OPP.

Mathieson was giving a report to the Lambton Group Police Services Board at its meeting on April 29 on police activity in January and February when Lambton OPP Inspector Chris Avery asked him to tell the board about the recent incident.

The names of those arrested nor the charges they face have not yet been released.

Mathieson relayed details of several other drug related arrests in January and February including two search warrants in St. Clair Township where four people were arrested and eight charges laid. Police seized 73 grams of cocaine and 20 grams of fentanyl. As a result, another search warrant was executed in Petrolia of a storage area where $2,000 was seized and a further charge of possessing property obtained by crime was laid.

On Walpole Island, three people were arrested for drug trafficking on the First Nation. A total of 132 grams of fentanyl and 11 grams of raw fentanyl was seized, along with cash totalling $1,000.

Pinsonneault new Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MPP

May 3, 2024

Steve Pinsonneault poses with friends after becoming the new Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MPP May 2.

Steve Pinsonneault has won the Lambton-Kent-Middlesex riding for the PC Party of Ontario.

And he did it convincingly.

The Thamesville businessman and municipal politician garnered 57 per cent of the vote Thursday in one of two by-elections in the province.

Pinsonneault claimed 15,649 votes. Liberal Candidate Cathy Burghart-Jeeson was his closest rival. She garnered 6,208 votes.

Pinsonneault is up for the challenge; “I have a vast knowledge of rural and urban. And that’s what Lambton-Kent,-Middlesex is. I know what the issues are, I know what the concerns are.”

The largest concern, he says, is the cost of living and the federal carbon tax.

Burghart-Jesson says there was one clear concern on the election trail. “We can talk about education, we talk about hospitals, we can talk about affordability, we can talk about infrastructure that’s kind of in every community but the one issue has been the dump, and that is going to have to be addressed,” says Burghart-Jesson.

Cathy Burghart-Jesson greets friends after the polls close in the Lambton-Kent-Middlesex by-electon.

“Dresden is kind of this flagship, for lack of a better term, for all of these dormant landfills. And if it happens there, then it’s the wild west, where it can happen right across the province.

“It’s a slippery slope and the government has shown that it’s far more interested in that large corporation and its donors than actually the residents of our communities.”

Pinsonneault says he is ready to stand up for the people of Dresden. “I don’t support the project. I’ve said that right from the beginning. And I’m going to continue to advocate that that dump landfill extension doesn’t. You know, I encourage the residents to keep filing with the registry. I haven’t changed my stance on that at all.”