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Coming home from work, Fort Erie’s Dave Hambley said he was hit with a “heavy chemical” smell that kept getting stronger the closer he got to home on Tuesday.
“I came home two nights ago, and it was so strong,” said Hambley. “It was burning my eyes, burning my throat. And I can smell it clear across town.”
At the time, he didn’t know where the smell — which he said was a “combination of chlorine and fertilizer” — came from until he learned it might be a chemical spill at the manufacturing plant by his house.
The spill involved 400 litres of phenol and water mix leaked from a storage tank at Durez Canada on Monday, Apr. 20, Ontario’s Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks told CBC Niagara.
The Fort Erie-based plant manufactures “high performing plastics” according to its LinkedIn page.
CBC spoke with other residents in Fort Erie who brought up similar concerns of an “intense” and “chlorine” smell irritating their eyes the last few days.
The ministry’s air experts say that the odour is not a health risk, but that phenol odours can be unpleasant and detected at very low concentrations.
Hambley says the smell “comes and goes.”
“I heard that it went as far as Tonawanda, [New York].”
Smell possibly crossed border
Fort Erie Fire Chief Mark Schmitt said fire departments from Buffalo and Grand Island, municipalities in New York along the Canada-U.S. border, received calls about a similar smell.
Whether it was related to the chemical spill at Durez Canada, he told CBC Niagara, it is unknown.
Schmitt also reached out to the City of Niagara Falls, but the fire department said they received no complaints from residents.
Schmitt said it took a while to make a connection between the smell and the plant.
“We had calls throughout the day surrounding it,” said the fire chief. “I wouldn’t say it was more evening versus day. I think it just depended on what the wind conditions were.”
Schmitt says the fire department investigated the source of the smell, confirming it was coming from the Durez plant.
Schmitt said a field officer he spoke to at the site said “the composition of the material was changing as it carried through the air, and that’s why it’s being described as chlorine or bleach.”
Durez says there’s no evidence linking odour to spill
“All released material has been fully contained within the facility’s secondary containment system, and there has been no off-site discharge of the liquid,” said the ministry which recently visited the plant.
The ministry said it has replaced the leaking valve and that it expects “all spilled material” to be removed and the affected area fully cleaned by end of Friday.
Durez Canada told CBC Niagara that the solution leak was “fully captured within an on-site dike” with no discharge to the environment and that the incident was “immediately” reported to the ministry.
Durez said Friday that contents in the dike have been removed.
The ministry said it “will continue to oversee the response to ensure appropriate cleanup measures are taken and a plan to prevent a future occurrence is prepared and implemented.”
Durez Canada says it is “not aware of any evidence” that the “contained, diluted material triggered the odour complaints” and that the spill had no “adverse effect to human health or the environment.”