Neighbourhood complaints over dust and noise in regard to the Lafarge plant are likely to be less contentionous in the future due to formation of a community liaison committee.
A community forum was held at Exshaw Hall on Tuesday (Nov. 15) as a followup to an Oct. 6 event which featured a mostly angry crowd of residents who directed complaints of dust, noise and improper coal storage toward Lafarge managers.
Several of the complaints were levelled at the company again on Tuesday, but with less anger. In response to the previous meeting, said new plant manager Heinz Knopfel, “we’ve gone back to the plant and looked at the way we’re running our plant.”
As part of the Tuesday meeting, Environment Manager Brad Watson presented information on what Lafarge has done as far as air monitoring and reduction of dust and noise. Lafarge’s data shows the plant is running within guidelines, but some residents weren’t satisified with the results.
Al Doll said after a blast in the quarry the week before, “it looked like a bomb went off. The numbers fit your graphs, but it doesn’t fit the community, it’s still too much.”
Watson said he realized residents remain unhappy with dust in the air. “I know it’s not pleasant to have dust on you, but we are improving.”
Asked what target Lafarge has for dust reduction, Knopfel said, “there’s no magic number we can get it down to,” but added plant expansion in the future will see increased filtering used.
Lafarge has filed for an extension of its operating permit with equipment upgrades and modernization plans extended to May 31, 2015. At that time, said Knopfel, all will be completed, or Alberta Environment will not allow the plant to continue operation.
Continued complaints and disbelief in Lafarge claims is due, said resident Jane Mandie, “because everyone here has been waiting for five years for something to happen.”
In response to those complaints, said Lafarage Community Affairs Relations Manager Joel Taguchi, the company has identified short-term steps it can take in reducing dust, including increased sweeping and watering of roads.
“After the last forum, we realize we have room for improvement. We’ve taken steps, but we need to hammer down improvements to watering and sweeping when conditions necessitate these mitigations. We want to manage dust in a more productive fashion.”
As well, said Taguchi, the company plans to plant trees and hydroseed open ground in an effort to reduce both dust and noise from the concrete operation.
When the subject of dumping coal on the ground, and storage of reject coal was raised, including by plant employees, resident Amanda Kelly directed some blame for the problems at staff. “You should be saying something. When you know about coal dumping, it’s heartbreaking to think you’d let this go on.”
After a resident’s comment that Lafarge staff should read the company’s operating permit, Taguchi and Knopfel said more emphasis will be place on staff education as well.
In the end, among those gathered, when questioned by Knopfel as to how many would like a complaints hotline installed, the results was nearly unanimous.
Going forward, a hotline and community liaison committee will be created. The committee, said Taguchi, will feature six to 10 community members and three or four Lafarge representatives. At the meeting, Taguchi had forms for those interested.
“This will be a forum for feedback,” he said, “with the aim of holding the first meeting before the end of the year. This sort of feedback (forum), exchange of information and hearing from stakeholders is something that is very valuable to us.
“The spirit of the committee will be to foster communication. We want to work with people interested in working with us.”
“It will be a good way to have open communication with the community,” said Knopfel. “I think this will be a tremendous benefit to the community.”
