Dear community members,
We would like to provide an update on the situation that occurred on Wednesday, June 24, 2020 at our Montreal facility. We would first like to express our sincerest apologies. This situation is unacceptable and does not meet our new operations and excellence standards.
Timeline
This situation results from a series of events starting with the late start of our operations on Monday. This delay, combined with the temporary, but significant, increase in organic matter volumes to be processed over four business days due to Québec’s national holiday, led to a significant accumulation of trucks – up to 28 – at our plant. The heat wave accelerated the degradation of the organic matter in the trucks, which generated odours in the community.
Different situation from last summer
This week’s incident is completely different from the situation experienced over the summer of 2019. From a mechanical standpoint, the facility was able to quickly process the organic matter from the 28 trucks as soon as the problem was resolved. This processing speed shows the importance of having robust production lines, the result of our investments and efforts made since last summer.
Actions taken
Given that next week will also be a four-day week with large volumes of organic matter, we are currently working to ensure a successful start of operation next Monday to avoid such a situation on Canada Day. A team of experts will be mobilized to ensure a smooth launch and the proper course of operations, thus reducing to a minimum the number of trucks waiting in the facility’s yard throughout the week.
Enhanced communication
For the entire summer season, we will proactively communicate with the community and citizens via our Web page (rdp-pat.sanimax.com), our Facebook group (@Sanimax Rivière-des-Prairies-Pointe-aux-Trembles (RDP-PAT)) and our monthly and occasional newsletters. We thus invite those interested to regularly consult these platforms and to subscribe to the newsletter.
In addition, the newly created Citizens Committee of RDP-PAT and Sanimax is scheduled to meet for the first time on July 9. This is an additional opportunity to open dialogue and communicate with the community. The list of elected citizen-members is available on our web page. More information on the committee will be provided after this first meeting.
All these measures are part of a more proactive and transparent approach to communicating with the community. This is the commitment we have made and will continue to fulfill it.
We also encourage citizens to report odour episodes directly to us so we can provide even more rapid intervention and possibly identify measures to be taken immediately. Citizens can therefore contact us by phone at 514 648-1083, or through our Facebook group.
Again, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Regards,
Vincent Brossard
Vice President, Operations – North America
