Pointe-Claire residents concerned about PCB leak

POINTE-CLAIRE – Residents of the area around Hymus near Delmar are desperate for information about what kind of contamination may or may not be on the site.

The Environment Ministry has issued an ultimatum to company Reliance Power Equipment on that street: Clean up your PCB-laced products, or else.

The toxic substance has been stored secretly on the site for 15 years.

Officials at Pointe-Claire City Hall say they’re livid.

“We’ll work with the Ministry, who will immediately try to get the PCB’s cleaned and clean the soil where the property is.”

The company in question, Reliance Power Equipment has been operating in Pointe-Claire since 1967.

In 1985, they asked permission to store and recycling PCB laced products at their site on Hymus boulevard.

Their request was denied, mainly because the area is extremely residential.

The plant is surrounded by homes with pools, parks and elementary schools.

The city says they were surprise when in March of this year a thousand liters of PCB leaked into the sewer system, setting off a string of emergency protocols.

Montreal Public Health was informed in May and now Quebec’s Environment Ministry has told the company it has until Wednesday to come up with a plan.

It turns out Reliance Power Equipment had been collecting and recycling transformers for 15 years without informing the city of Pointe Claire or the Quebec Environment Ministry.

At this point there’s no indication about how that may have affected people living in the area that whole time .

City officials say they’re first priority is making sure the site is cleaned up.

The city says anyone with questions should call the city of Pointe-Claire fire department for more information.

In the meantime Pointe-Claire has posted 24 hours surveillance to make sure nobody goes onto the site where the PCB’s have spilled.