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Can't compare smelters, Sudbury crowd told

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There are pros and cons to hosting the chromite smelter in Coniston and Tom Price wants to make sure residents understand the differences between the Nickel City and Tornio, Finland, which is home to the Outokumpu ferrochrome production facility.

Price, a retired engineering technologist with decades of experience at Vale who helped set up the world's first chrome recycling plant in Pennsylvania, hosted a presentation at the Lexington Hotel on Wednesday aimed at educating the public on some of his chromite concerns.

Several dozen people turned out to hear him present on the proposed smelter and Ward 2 Coun. Michael Vagnini said the meeting was organized after several people reached out to him to express their apprehensions.

The major problem, Price said, is that Tornio and Coniston cannot be compared.

There are 2,500 people living within 2.5 km of the proposed site in Coniston, while in Tornio, there are no people inside that radius.

In Tornio, the smelter is actually on an ocean-side peninsula and effluent washes away and dissipates. In Coniston, there is no waterway to carry away waste products or discharge from the arc furnace. The Wanapitei River, however, would be at least partially responsible for providing the plant's water needs.

"It doesn't have enough water to supply the plant needs as the plant is designed in Tornio," Price said. "Tornio draws water from the rivers and uses it, I think as a once-through cooling medium and then dumps it back into the sea. We can't do that. We don't have 24 million cubic metres per year of water available, so they're going to have to redesign their cooling system."

Price said there is not even that much water available in the Sudbury district.

One of Price's major concerns is weather. Tornio and Coniston do not enjoy the same weather patterns. Tornio has nearly twice as much fog and nearly twice as many rain days as Greater Sudbury. That matters because fog helps to dilute airborne effluent.

"Fog days are a natural method of eliminating particulates out of the atmosphere," Price said. "Any particulates that get knocked out by the fog drop out very quickly. They don't travel all the way to the town. "¦ It's dropping out within a couple of kilometres. That's vastly different from what we will have in Coniston. Those fine particles will carry much further and contaminate a much larger area."

Because the Finnish smelter is on a peninsula, particulates that get trapped in the fog are diluted once they reach the Bothnian Bay.

"The accumulation around the plant is very minimal compared to what we'll have," Price said.

City council bid on the smelter in February. Noront Resources has indicated it is considering one of four northern cities - the others include Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins and Thunder Bay - to host the smelter.

A delegation from Sudbury, including Mayor Brian Bigger, Chief Ted Roque of the Wahnapitae First Nation and Ward 6 Coun. Rene Lapierre, travelled to Tornio earlier this year to investigate the Outokumpu ferrochrome production facility.

Bigger said following their trans-Atlantic trip that he is convinced Sudbury should be home to Noront's ferrochrome smelter. For one thing, the Outokumpu plant uses the same closed furnace technology that Noront is proposing, which should prevent any hexavalent chromium from being released into the environment.

But even in Tornio, Price said hexavalent chromium was found in the surrounding land and a study published by Public Health Ontario found that lingonberries were contaminated.

"In Finland, wild lingonberries were found to be contaminated with chromium and other heavy metals by air emissions from a chromium mine and ferrochrome and stainless steel plant," a case study mentioned (it is available online at tinyurl.com/yb3bzxok). "Concentrations were higher within a distance of about 3 km from the facilities. Nickel, vanadium and lead were associated with the chromium processing plant while cadmium was linked to the mine."

In order to make a safe smelter, Price said there must be ways of dealing with waste products, which could include hexavalent chromium.

Once fully operational, a quarter tonne per year of effluent could be released into a waterway, possibly the Wanapitei River, which is home to some of Sudbury's drinking water. Price said it is probable that waste product will include some hexavalent chromium. As many as 110 tonnes per year of emissions (again, containing small amounts of hexavalent chromium) could be released into the air and 20,000 tonnes per year of contaminated waste will need to be dumped somewhere. It will likely end up in lined tailings ponds.

Sudbury's roads could also take a beating.

There will be 234 incoming trucks every day carrying lumpy ore (from the Ring of Fire), quartz, coke and concentrate. Currently, the only way to access the proposed smelter site is along Second Avenue and Edward Avenue in Coniston. Much of that product will be trucked in via Highway 17 or Highway 400/69. Outgoing, there will be 167 trucks carrying slag, waste and ferrochrome (likely to the Pittsburgh area). That is more than 400 trucks battering the city's roadways every day.

Noront has said it plans to publicize its decision within the next three to four months. The plant, however, is a long-term project and is not expected to be operational for five to 10 years. No matter which city wins the bid, there will be an arduous environmental assessment process to undertake before the smelter goes online.

mkkeown@postmedia.com

Twitter: @marykkeown

705 674 5271 ext. 505235 

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