Lafarge Cement Plant

Fall 2018 -  We received a response to our formal statement of concern (SOC) on Lafarge’s Low Carbon Fuel project.  Lafarge’s response generally answered our questions and in recent dialogue with Lafarge, they have agreed to meaningful continuous improvement as part of the 2019 permit renewal process.  Based on this, BVCAS has withdrawn our formal statement of concern for Lafarge’s Low Carbon Fuel Project.

Lafarge has also created a “Project Advisory Committee” which includes BVCAS along with other environmental groups, researchers, government and municipality representatives.  The Project Advisory Committee is tasked with reviewing low carbon fuel alternatives for the plant.   We feel that this is a worthwhile effort for BVCAS to commit to as the Lafarge Exshaw plant is estimated to be the 25^th largest greenhouse gas emitter in Canada and Lafarge as a company is estimated to be the 11^th largest in Canada. 

Baymag

Spring 2018 - during the last renewal application for Baymag in 2016, BVCAS submitted a formal Statement of Concern with regard to Baymag’s permit renewal application.  To address our concerns, Baymag agreed to a number of continuous improvements with their renewal.  They agreed to reduce their permitted emissions from their two main stacks by 50%, they will replace an open conveyor with a closed conveyor, they implement a dust management plan and they will pave some of the dusty roads in their facility. These were written into the permit renewal.  As a result of these improvemnets, BVCAS withdrew our statement of concern. 

Graymont

Spring 2018 -  Early in 2016, BVCAS submitted a formal "statement of concern" in regards to Graymont’s application for an Ore Sorter Project.  The ore sorter project will result in a slight increase in emissions of particulates.  BVCAS’s position was that (1) any increase, even small, is not consistent with Alberta Environment’s continuous improvement policy and (2) if the emissions increase are so small, surely Graymont can do something equally as small to ensure that the emissions do not increase.  In follow-up meetings with Graymont, Graymont committed to studying and then implementing best available technology (likely a filter baghouse or better) for dust control on Kiln 1 (Kiln 2 already has a baghouse).  As a result of this commitment and after confirming that this commitment had been written into the draft approval for the project, BVCAS removed our "statement of concern."