A new manufacturing plant opening this month in North Bay has been under some scrutiny as far as its intentions and ramifications on the city's safe supply of drinking water.
In 2022, Industrial Plastics Canada (IPC) purchased the old Warren Equipment facility off Wallace Road in North Bay's Industrial Park.
See related: New manufacturer coming to North Bay's industrial park
Last summer, officials at IPC told BayToday the 30,000-square-foot facility would be ideal to manufacture its product called polytetrafluoroethylene, or PTFE, a Teflon-like material which is described as "a synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene that has numerous applications."
They told BayToday about their plans during a tour last August.
"Basically it looks like a nylon," an official stated.
"We are not making it for our end users; we are making it for customers who will make products like gasket seals, and from every industry from mining to material transfer to food products. You name it, we are going to be in that industry."
The Narwhal, an online magazine that investigates environmental concerns raises some alarm bells about the manufacturing facility in a recent publication, noting the private company is not subject to environmental assessment. The article mentions potential contaminants, including PFAS, and raises doubts as to whether Health Canada's regulations on PFAS adequately cover such scenarios.
The City of North Bay has come to the defence of Industrial Plastics Canada.
"We understand that recent news and social media posts have raised concerns and misconceptions about Industrial Plastics Canada and its operations in North Bay," says Mayor Peter Chirico in a statement to BayToday.
Chirico says the City of North Bay wants to clarify some of the information circulating to address these concerns.
"Firstly, IPC will not manufacture raw plastics on site, and its operations will not have any impact on local watercourses," Chirico says. "The facility will not discharge to land or water. Air standards will be required to comply with Ontario environmental legislation and regulations like all manufacturers in the City of North Bay and within the Province of Ontario."
According to Health Canada, polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are "a group of over 4,700 human-made substances that are used in a wide range of products such as lubricants, cosmetics, surfactants, firefighting foams, non-stick cookware, food packaging materials, repellents (for dirt, water, and grease), and textiles (carpets, furniture, and clothing). New PFAS are continually being developed and notified to the Government of Canada.
"Adverse environmental and health effects have been observed for well-studied PFAS [perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), long-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids (LC-PFCAs), and their salts and precursors] and they have been shown to pose a risk to the Canadian environment."
Brennain Lloyd, project coordinator for the local environment group Northwatch says she is aware of the recent reporting on the plant and knew about the company through a feature done on the facility last summer by BayToday.
"First of all, we searched the environmental registry, where you would expect [to find] an operation like this, you would expect they would have gone through the permitting process," Lloyd says.
"At Northwatch we monitor the environmental registry regularly and we expect that if there is a new operation opening in North Bay that could have environmental concerns associated with it we expect to be able to see those postings on the environmental registry and that keeps us abreast as to what is coming up," says Lloyd, noting that was the process the galvanizing plant near the Airport went through.
Lloyd says she has reached out to the local Ministry of Environment officials who stated there is nothing in their system on the new plant.
"But as I understand it, operations have not begun at this facility," Lloyd notes.
"If there is going to be a discharge to air or to water they will require a permit. So it is puzzling to us as to why they are reporting themselves as being so close to going into operation and they have not gone through the permitting process.
"I don't know what their operations are but the very general description I heard it does sound like it does involve heat. If there is a combination of heat and chemicals, then usually there is a discharge to air so we are expecting there will be a permit posted and we will be commenting on it."
Vic Fedeli, the MPP for Nipissing, was alerted about the concern.
"It is our government’s expectation that all companies adequately follow Federal and Provincial health and safety guidelines accordingly," states Fedeli in an email to BayToday.
Mayor Chirico explains IPC creates its products through an enclosed, cold and dry compression moulding process using imported plastic resin. "Any waste is reused, ensuring that no materials go to our landfill.
"Furthermore, IPC purchased a property that was appropriately zoned for its operations. As a result, its facility is already in compliance with all municipal planning policies. The company has also obtained the appropriate building permits under the Ontario Building Code for the work that’s underway at its Wallace Road location.
"The City of North Bay remains dedicated to protecting its natural environment while also supporting job creation and business growth. We will continue to work with IPC as the company completes construction and begins operations," Chirico concludes.
Environmental groups have been sensitive to the subject of PFAS in North Bay's drinking water in the past. In 2017, testing on Lees Creek showed the waterway is polluted with PFAS from the military base located just upstream. The creek empties into Trout Lake just a few hundred yards from the city's drinking water plant.
That's why the new plant concerns Lloyd.
"Trout Lake has suffered from contamination coming down from the military base through Lee's Creek into Delaney Bay," she says.
"The city is looking at issues of PFAS contamination but there is not a treatment option in place and now there's a threat of additional contamination. We don't know what it will be, We don't know if it will be air or water so we don't know what those releases would look like and that is a problem."
Officials with IPC have reached out to BayToday and have offered an interview with its president, Andrea Arlati who is visiting the plant later this week.
On its website, IPC Inc. is described as "the newest Guarniflon venture and their second location in North America; as part of the Guarniflon Group, IPC, leverages more than 70 years of combined experience in producing finished, semi-finished products in PTFE, custom moulded rods, tubes, plate sheets, gaskets, and machined components."
