Two Hamilton residents are using provincial law to request an investigation into whether ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s steelmaking emissions run afoul of Ontario’s environmental air pollution regulations.
The request comes amid delays in the steelmaker’s promised plan to end the use of polluting coal through new “green steel” technology by 2028.
Under Ontario’s Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR), two or more citizens can ask the provincial regulator to look into alleged environmental violations. The Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks confirmed to The Spectator it has received and is reviewing the request from residents.
Such EBR applications are relatively rare — the environment ministry only agreed to undertake two such investigations in 2023-2024, according to Ontario’s auditor general. The ministry has 60 days to let the Hamilton applicants know if it will not investigate.
Longtime community activist Jochen Bezner and another unnamed Hamiltonian teamed up with national environmental law group Ecojustice to submit the application, which calls on the ministry to investigate the Hamilton steelmaker for allegedly emitting dangerous contaminants like benzene, benzo(a)pyrene and sulphur dioxide at levels that exceed “science-based regulatory standards designed to protect human health.” Those emissions, the application alleges, violate provincial air quality regulations.
“The overwhelming feeling from my clients is that it’s time for the ministry to hold big polluters accountable,” Ecojustice lawyer Ian Morin told The Spectator Monday. “And to enforce the air quality standards that are there to protect their health.”
For years, the steelmaker operated under “site specific standards” that legally allowed for higher emissions of certain contaminants than what would normally be allowed under provincial air quality regulations. But those exemptions expired midway through 2023 — shortly after the company went public with a taxpayer-subsidized plan to eventually phase out polluting coal by switching to technology that relies on electricity and natural gas.
The company did not answer Spectator questions about the citizen investigation request and pollution allegations, other than to point to a citizen committee update on its green steel project.
But in 2023, Dofasco told The Spectator the company’s environmental compliance approvals now cover the legal requirements to “manage emissions of contaminants” that were previously governed by site-specific standards. “All associated compliance procedures and protocol requirements are being addressed by the company,” Dofasco said.
The steelmaker was also required to submit a pollution “abatement plan” to the province.
A copy of a plan submitted in 2023, obtained by Ecojustice and Bezner via a Freedom of Information request, shows the province was willing to provide an exemption to stricter sulphur dioxide pollution limits as a result of Dofasco’s “decarbonization” commitment to end the use of coal by 2029.
Residents have become increasingly concerned, however, about apparent delays in that green steel project, including a natural gas pipeline that was supposed to be done this year but has not even been approved.
The steelmaker told a local community liaison committee last month the company is “proceeding with extreme caution for all expenditures” on the “highly complex” decarbonization project as a result of the challenge of U.S. steel tariffs imposed on Canadian-made steel.
Whether the green steel overhaul goes ahead or not, Dofasco pollution needs to improve, said Bezner, one of the two Hamiltonians seeking an EBR investigation, in an interview.
More than 80,000 residents in the neighbourhoods around and downwind of Dofasco are still being exposed to high levels of dangerous pollutants, he argued.
Bezner, 57, recounted he used to have to keep his windows closed in the summer and avoid exercising during “high pollution time” when he lived in Crown Point, south of the city’s industrial waterfront, because of the sulphur-like smell coming from the nearby mill. Even after moving to Westdale in 2021, he said he can still sometimes smell the odour depending on the direction of the wind.
“Once your nose has been fine-tuned to those odours near the plant, you can still detect them,” he said.
Steelmaking pollution is part of the reason Hamilton is one of the worst hot spots in Ontario for cancer-causing air contaminants like benzene and benzo(a)pyrene, The Spectator has previously reported. “They’re the true worry because long-term exposure can lead to higher cancer rates,” Bezner said.
Councillor Tammy Hwang, who represents the Ward 4 area that encompasses the Dofasco mill and some of the surrounding neighbourhoods, told The Spectator Monday that Bezner and the other resident are justified in requesting the provincial review.
The councillor also acknowledged that Dofasco is dealing with the challenge of U.S. tariffs, but said the company should still remain “environmentally conscious.”
“I am very empathetic to the economic situation that they’re in,” Hwang said, “but for every crisis there is an opportunity to do some good.”
— With files from Matthew Van Dongen
