PCB-laden oil found illegally stored in Pointe Claire

APointe Claire companyis being asked to stopillegally storing toxicPCB-laden oil onitscompound,located near a residential district on Montreal's West Island.

The city says Reliance Power Equipment, located in an industrial park on Hymus Blvd., hasbeen keeping transformers full of the dangerous chemicals unsupervised inits yard for the past 15 years.

In a statement released this afternoon, Quebec's environment ministry confirmed800-1,200 litres of oily liquid containing large concentrations of PCBs leaked from Reliance'sproperty last March.

One more week to comply

Theministry has ordered the company to dispose of the PCBs safely and has given it one more week to comply with the order.

Officials at thecitysay over the years Reliancehas taken Pointe Claireto court twiceand lostbecause the company wanted a permit to store PCB-contaminated equipment on its property.

"If it's properly secure, the risk is minimum, but it needs to be well done and it needs to be eventually cleaned out and it needs to go where it can be treatedand it's not in Pointe Claire," said Nicolas Bouchard, Pointe Claire's city manager.

No immediate health risk, say public health officials

Norman King, a spokesman forMontreal's public health department, sayshe wasinformed of the PCBs by the environment ministry on May 30.

King told CBC's Radio Noon that for the moment, the PCBs don't pose a health risk to people in the area, though there is a potential danger of thechemicals spreading in the event of an accident.

"Ifthere were a fire on the site, then we would be talking aboutsomething really important," said King. "Our primary concern is to do everything we can so that there will not be such an event."

• 1988: Residents flee PCB fire near Montreal

King said the site is being monitored around the clock to ensure nobody enters the facilitybefore the site can becleaned up.

PCBswere used in the manufacturing of electrical equipment, heat exchangers, hydraulic systems, and several other specialized applications up to the late 1970s.

The import, manufacture and sale of PCBs were made illegal in Canada in 1977.

However, Canadian legislation has allowed owners of PCB equipment to continue using the equipment until the end of its service life.

The storage of PCBs has been regulated since 1988. Handling, transport and destruction of PCBs are also regulated, mostly under provincial regulations.