Hamiltonian, advocacy group request probe into ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s emissions

A pair of Hamiltonians are raising concerns over ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s (AMD) timeline to produce so-called green steel and the emissions the company is releasing in the meantime.

With help from an advocacy group, the locals say they filed a request with the province to look into the steelmaker and whether or not it’s exceeding pollution regulations.

According to environmental group Ecojustice, ArcelorMittal Dofasco had an exemption to emit beyond air quality standards, but it expired two years ago.

“There’s basically three compliance pathways under the Ontario air regulations and right now, neither one of them is applying to AMD. So, our main question to the ministry is, how can that be,” says Jochen Bezner, Hamilton resident and an advocate for the probe.

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Bezner believes it’s time for Ontario’s Ministry of Environment to take a hard look at ArcelorMittal Dofasco and determine whether or not the big steelmaker is violating environmental laws.

This is because, as he says, an exemption the company held to emit a slew of contaminants has long expired.

“The Hamilton air shed is really overburdened with mainly two carcinogens, among other things. Mainly benzene and benzo(a)pyrene. In some parts of Hamilton, you have a 100 times higher risk of developing cancer from those two pollutants than the rest of Ontario,” says Bezner.

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Bezner says he sits in on Dofasco’s community liaison committee and believes the performance of its coke ovens have been poor.

All while the company has promised to move towards decarbonization over the next couple of years.

Under the province’s Environmental Bill of Rights, Bezner says he and another Hamiltonian have requested a probe on behalf of people living near the steel mill, a filing also obtained by CHCH News.

Working with Ecojustice, an environmental law advocacy group, they say Dofasco had an exemption called “site specific standards,” allowing those emission levels to be higher than normal, but it expired in 2023.

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“They did have one of those standards expire two years ago. For the past two years, we’ve kind of seen the status quo locked in, where there’s no push to reduce emissions even further even though they are still way higher than what the science-based standards say they should be,” says Ian Miron, the Managing Lawyer of Ecojustice.

“The ministry has received the request and will review it to assess the need for an investigation,” The Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks says to CHCH News in a statement.

The lawyer representing Ecojustice says there is a 60 day window for the province to determine if it will investigate or not.

“I think, in this case, we have some pretty compelling evidence to support the request, so we’re hopeful they will undertake the investigation,” Mirion says.

CHCH News also asked the ministry what conditions would have to be met in order to launch an investigation. They haven’t responded back yet to that question.

CHCH News also reached out to ArcelorMittal Dofasco to comment on the investigation request. They say they have nothing further to add further in regards to that, but their decarbonization project plans are progressing.

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