WATCH ABOVE: t’s taking some heavy machinery and a couple of workers in white suits, but the PCBs are finally being cleaned up in Pointe-Claire. Rachel Lau reports.
POINTE-CLAIRE – It’s taking some heavy machinery and a couple of workers in white suits, but the PCBs are finally being cleaned up in Pointe-Claire.
“Finally, it’s done so we are happy about that,” said resident Julie Castro.
READ MORE: What are PCBs?
There isn’t much left of what used to be Reliance Power Equipment. Months after it was revealed that PCBs were illegally being stored, all the transformers are now gone.
“I’m not convinced that the Ministry of the Environment has sufficiently measured PCB concentration off the site of the spill,” said Daniel Green, Co-Founder of Société pour Vaincre la Pollution.
Soil samples will be collected from the site over the next few weeks. It will take two months for results to determine what needs to be done going forward, but some experts aren’t buying what the government has to offer.
READ MORE: Montreal environmentalist voices concerns over PCB sites
“We have to understand there was a spill,” said Green. “The PCBs did not just stay at the site. The PCBs went off site.”
Residents of the quiet neighbourhood aren’t convinced officials have done all they can.
“It just seemed like they weren’t very enthusiastic about cleaning it up in the beginning,” said Cliff Bush, who lives behind the site.
He says he can’t believe how long the situation has been dragged out.
“They were going to get the company to clean it up, then the city stepped in and now they’ve started to clean it up but it’s kind of hush hush,” said Bush.
Castro is just relieved something is finally being done.
WATCH: PCB clean-up in Pointe-Claire
“We are senior people and we are afraid if we get some poison or something like that, but now we are OK,” said Castro. “We feel confident.”
READ MORE: Now that hazardous chemicals found in Pointe-Claire, who’s at fault, and what can be done?
After the toxicity results come in, Reliance Power Equipment is expected to pay the government back for taking on the task of cleaning up. But Green insists there’s more to be done beyond the site’s fence.
“It’s important that Environment Quebec investigate where these PCBs are sent to because it would be a tragedy to pollute two areas from one spill.”
Neither Pointe-Claire city officials nor the Ministry of Environment were available to comment on the clean-up effort.
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