Residents Startled By Explosion At Recycling Facility, But Advocates Say Situation Improving

An explosion at American Iron and Metal’s (AIM) waterfront facility may have startled city residents on Monday morning, but two people that live in the area say the company is addressing issues at the controversial operation – with still more to be done.

At about 7:16 a.m. on Monday morning, an explosion occurred at AIM’s plant on the city’s lower west side. It was big enough to rattle nearby homes and a large plume of smoke could be seen over the facility soon afterward.

In a statement on its Facebook page, the company said it was a contained explosion that was no threat to public safety.

“…the noise that was heard from the AIM Recycling Saint John Plant was from a contained explosion, no combustion, with a reportable impulse sound level reading of greater than 104 dBA LAFmax,” the post read. “AIM reasures [sic] you that the equipment is designed to withstand these bursts of pressure and that these contained bursts are neither a threat to the safety of the public nor to structures.”

The Department of Environment and Local Government told Huddle in a statement via email that both they and the Saint John Fire Department were notified about the incident and the cause of the explosion was due to a propane tank.

“The fire department did on an-site inspection and was satisfied the issue had been resolved,” said the statement. “A propane tank in the material being shredded caused the explosion. The department gave AIM permission to restart operations at approximately 11:18 a.m.”

Over the last several years the frequency of explosions at the AIM facility has been a growing concern to both west side and uptown residents – so much so that operations were briefly shut down in November 2018. The community’s concerns came to a head last October at a combative public meeting with residents, AIM president and CEO Herb Black, and government officials.

Gary MacDonald, who lives in uptown Saint John, says when he heard the explosion Monday morning, he wasn’t as alarmed as he used to be.

“My reaction probably was not as intense as what it was a year ago or a year and a half ago, primarily because a number of things have been happening over there,” said MacDonald in an interview.

“They really stepped up the inspection of materials coming in. The odd thing still does slip through, but overall, compared to what it was about a year-and-a-half ago, from an explosion point-of-view, they have been reduced significantly.”

MacDonald is part of a community liaison committee that meets monthly with representatives from AIM, local and provincial governments, and various other stakeholders. He says that as far as he can remember, the last major explosion before Monday’s was back in July of last year.

“I’m more confident that this was just the exception rather than the rule. I think they’ve been doing a pretty good job overall policing the material that’s coming in and looking for potential explosive items in that material,” he said.

“It’s the type of business that, unfortunately, you’re going to have something like that from time-to-time, but if you’re taking as many steps as possible to reduce it, it’s a positive step forward.”

Raven Blue, another uptown resident on the community liaison committee, agrees the explosions have become less frequent. But he says they are a ‘red herring’ to other issues with the facility that need to be better addressed, specifically air quality.

“New Brunswick has different regulations for air quality than they would in Quebec where a lot of other AIM facilities are. They don’t have any limits or thresholds specified for heavy metal particulates, for example,” said Blue.

“They are kind of enjoying a free pass on a lot of things that in other provinces they’d be much more stringent about. There’s a lot of work to be done in terms of the Clean Air Act and regulations to make sure that the actual chemistry and components that are in the air and their emissions are being monitored.”

Blue says New Brunswick’s Department of Environment and Local Government now monitors fine metal particulates. Though this is an improvement, more needs to be done.

“When there is an explosion it generates lots of headlines, but it actually distracts from what’s really going on,” said Blue. “I think we really need to focus on air quality and long-term health impacts of a facility like that.”

A version of this story was published in Huddle, an online business news publication based in Saint John. Huddle is an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.