Possible contaminants at the Northvolt site | Minister Charette will intervene “if any shortcomings are noted”

The office of the Minister of the Environment of Quebec maintains that it will not hesitate to intervene if shortcomings are noted on the Northvolt site, the day after the release of three organizations which “suggest that the construction work of the factory” favored the release of various contaminants into the Richelieu River.

The Northvolt company, if it wants to obtain the necessary authorizations from the Ministry of the Environment, must “comply with several measures to ensure that the soil does not contaminate groundwater or the Richelieu River,” indicated the office of Minister Benoit Charette in an email exchange with The Canadian Press.

“The Ministry has carried out several inspections, including one recently on November 6 where the results are being analyzed. We will continue inspections as many times as necessary and we will not hesitate to intervene if any shortcomings are noted,” the message reads.

The minister’s office was thus reacting to the conclusions of a study presented by the Citizen Action Committee – Northvolt Project (CAC), the Society to Conquer Pollution (SVP) and the Society for Nature and Parks (SNAP Quebec) which made analyze water and sediment samples that would come from the Northvolt site by a certified laboratory.

The organizations SNAP Québec, SVP and CAC say they are particularly concerned by the “presence of high concentrations of certain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which exceed up to eight times the sediment criterion for the protection of the aquatic environment”.

These contaminants would have been found in particular in sediments along the coast of the Richelieu River, just outside the Northvolt site.

According to the three organizations, the contaminants have been on the site since the time when the place belonged to the CIL company, but it is the work of Northvolt which would allow the contaminants to escape from the site and reach the river by runoff , especially because many trees were cut down.

For its part, Northvolt published a press release Tuesday morning, in which it reiterates that “the sampling was carried out outside the Northvolt site and the work area” and “that it is impossible to assert that the results are directly linked to Northvolt’s activities.

Still according to the Northvolt press release, the analyzes presented by the three groups “include methodological uncertainties” while “the regular analyzes carried out by Northvolt show that our installations do not present a problem of leakage of contaminants towards the Richelieu River”.

Northvolt also claims that its “water containment and treatment system, already in place, goes beyond normal requirements for construction sites.”