Long-overdue move to revoke scrapyard licence raises questions about regulatory oversight

In a welcome move, the New Brunswick government has revoked American Iron and Metal licence for its Saint John scrapyard. But given the company’s history of flouting regulations, why did this take so long, and what’s being done to prevent similar incidents from happening again?

The decision to revoke the company’s licence came only after a major fire in September and a scathing report from the task force that investigated the incident. But that fire never should have been allowed to happen.

The task force’s report shed light on various problems leading up to the fire, exposing the faults in the company’s environmental impact assessment. The task force found that the assessment didn’t address key environmental issues or events like fires, explosions and the possible release of contaminants. It also pointed out that the company’s operations at the yard were “significantly different” from the information it presented during the approval process.

Essentially, the scrapyard operated outside of what was promised under the environmental impact assessment for years, with accidents and even deaths occurring long before the September blaze.

Why was the fire the final nail in the coffin for AIM’s operation?

It is good that AIM’s licence was revoked, but given what we’ve learned, we need to ensure the regulatory and enforcement system is fixed so that similar industrial incidents are prevented in the future.

The mess caused by this fire has yet to be fully addressed, and we don’t yet know the full extent of the pollution from this incident. We do know, though, that the pollution from this fire and past incidents at AIM cannot be reversed — the harm has been done. It is critical that we continue to study the impacts of this fire.

The pollution from this incident has harmed people, animals and natural ecosystems, and these pollutants will linger in the environment for years. Gardeners, children, anyone with respiratory or other health challenges, and animals are left to deal with the consequences, not to mention the first responders who put themselves at risk to battle the fire.

That impact would have been “disastrous,” the report said, had it not been for the Atlantic Osprey vessel, which is equipped to fight oil rig fires, and happened to be in Saint John at the time.

Now, the company has said in court documents that it is looking for another location to ship scrap. Given its record, if AIM keeps running its operations, there might be another problem.

Even though the scrapyard is shuttered for now, we still need to ensure that industrial actors like AIM are completing rigorous environmental impact assessments. We also need more oversight and enforcement to make sure they are adhering to regulations.

Closing the AIM scrapyard is a temporary solution, and we must work hard to ensure we’re ready for future problems. Our communities, nature and the future depend on it.