Port Colborne residents to appeal cleanup standard

Residents of Port Colborne, in Ontario’s Niagara region, have been given the right to appeal a cleanup order which they say is too limited.

The order, made in March by the Ministry of the Environment, requires that Inco clean up properties contaminated with 8,000 parts per million (ppm) or more of nickel.

Residents said the level set in the order was too high, and the Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal recently agreed that the residents could begin an appeal.

The tribunal accepted the residents’ position that a concentration limit of 7,100 ppm, previously established by the ministry, be considered.

In its ruling, the tribunal said the Environment Ministry did not provide “sufficient justification to explain the . . . decision to depart from the strong standard contained in the [existing] guideline.”

The appeal by the residents will be considered at a full hearing in the fall. At the same time, Inco’s appeal against the order will be heard. Inco’s appeal disputes the claim that 8,000 ppm of nickel pose a health risk to residents.

Nickel oxide, the main contaminant in Port Colborne, is a known carcinogen for which Ontario regulations have set a maximum safe exposure level of 310 ppm.

The environment ministry order forced the mining company to clean up the 25 most heavily contaminated properties and any others in the city that show soil-nickel levels above 8,000 ppm. Inco has already cleaned up several of the 25 properties covered under the cleanup order.

Between 1918 and 1984, Inco processed roughly 2.5 million tonnes of nickel oxide at the Port Colborne refinery.

In a related story, the Ontario Superior court has ruled that a $750-million class-action suit launched by residents of Port Colborne against Inco, the Environment Ministry and others over the nickel contamination is not suitable to proceed.