This “administrative sanction” of $10,000 is the result of a long-term analysis by the Quebec Ministry of the Environment.
It all started with an audit of the 2022 annual report of Matrec’s technical landfill (LET, or landfill site). There, the Ministry first noted “breaches of environmental legislation”.
Matrec is a subsidiary of Toronto-based GFL Environmental. (Archives Le Quotidien)
This was followed by a notice of non-compliance, served on December 20, 2023 to GFL Environmental (parent company of Matrec), due to non-compliance with standards and deterioration of groundwater quality ( iron, manganese, total sulfides and total coliforms).
The Ministry’s notice also highlights two other standards that were not respected.
He thus names the “non-compliance with a discharge standard for treated leachate (suspended matter) and the “exceeding of the methane standard at two locations of the site cells”.
Corrective actions
On May 3, the Ministry of the Environment sent GFL Environmental the administrative penalty of $10,000.
“For not having ensured that the quality of groundwater is not subject to any deterioration in the case provided for therein, namely for the following parameters: fecal coliforms (TF-30 well), iron (well TF-27 and TF-28) and manganese (TF-27 well).”
— Extract from the Ministry’s decision, in response to clarifications requested by La Voix de l’Est
Matrec/GFL Environmental inc. submitted to the Ministry the corrective measures it plans to implement at the Sainte-Cécile landfill site.
These corrective measures are currently being analyzed by the Quebec Ministry of the Environment.
We don’t know the details. Questioned Wednesday morning by The Voice of the EastMatrec declined to comment.
To finish, a historical nod: Matrec is the first company to have opened a sorting center in Quebec. It was in 1991, in Saint-Hubert, specifies the company.
