‘Anxiety and confusion’: Residents search for answers on AIM

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A group of Saint John residents wants to know why the province’s environment department hasn’t permanently revoked American Iron & Metal’s approval to operate for its lower west Saint John scrapyard.

On Dec. 29, Public Safety Minister Kris Austin revoked the salvage dealer’s licence for that operation in the wake of a damning report into the scrapyard’s massive Sept. 14 fire.

News of that decision was largely welcomed by Saint Johners as it was interpreted to mean the scrapyard would be shuttered permanently, pending a possible judicial review of the decision.

But the operation is also regulated by the province’s environment department under what’s called an approval to operate. That licence remains suspended, but it hasn’t been revoked, according to Saint John resident Raven Blue, who has been in touch with the environment department.

“I’ve let (the province) know that (the situation) creates anxiety and confusion because the press release that was issued from them on Dec. 29 gave the impression that this is a done deal when in fact it wasn’t from the Department of Environment who is the primary regulator,” said Blue, of community group Liveable Saint John.

Environment Minister Gary Crossman has yet to publicly respond to the findings of the provincial task force’s report into the Sept. 14 fire and other incidents at the lower west Saint John scrapyard.

Brunswick News requested an interview with Crossman on Monday, but while the request was acknowledged by the department, the newspaper didn’t receive a response back. Previous efforts by the newspaper to get an update on the status of AIM’s approval to operate have also been unsuccessful.

In 2011, AIM obtained the approval to operate in order to run an industrial shredder at its lower west scrapyard to shred end-of-life vehicles before shipping them off for scrap metal recycling.

Blue said while the scrapyard has lost its licence to buy and sell scrap metal, he’s concerned the shredder could resume operating if the suspension is ever lifted on the company’s approval to operate.

“I’m just assuming that if their approval to operate was brought back in place, they could resume 90 per cent of their operations by taking material from elsewhere,” he said.

Saint John city Coun. Gerry Lowe said Tuesday neither he nor council as a whole has received an update on the status of AIM’s approval to operate.

“As council, we haven’t heard anything either,” Lowe said. “(The salvage dealer’s licence) was stopped by (Austin), but the environment part of the report hasn’t been mentioned.”

In order to obtain that approval, AIM told the province’s environment department it had an “enviable record of environmental stewardship” and would take “extensive measures” to prevent hazardous materials from arriving on site, according to the provincial task force’s report.

But the task force found AIM’s operations and its risks are “significantly different” than those presented at the time it obtained its regulatory approval to operate the shredder and expand its scrapyard to 26 acres.

In the 12 years the shredder was in operation, the lower west scrapyard has experienced 181 explosions and 22 fires, according to the task force report.

The task force concluded the operation posed a “high likelihood” of future fires and was “entirely inappropriate” to be situated in a residential neighbourhood.

A three-storey pile of scrap metal – believed to have been ignited by rechargeable lithium ion batteries – burned for 40 hours at AIM’s lower west scrapyard on Sept. 14 and 15. At the time of the fire, the Gateway Street scrapyard had piles of scrap larger than prescribed by the National Fire Code, according to the task force report.

In the wake of the fire, the New Brunswick government did a regulatory crackdown on all scrapyards in the province. Three other AIM scrapyards have now been ordered to reduce the size of their on-site scrap piles by Feb. 7.

Meanwhile, AIM has a 90-day window – as of Dec. 29 – to seek a judicial review of Austin’s decision to revoke the company’s approval to operate for its lower west scrapyard.