Plan St-Laurent - Pour un développement durable

• The St. Lawrence
  River in good hands
  • Governmental
    actions
  • St. Lawrence Plan
  • 
    • Already 20 years!
    • Highlights
    • Achievements
    • Testimonies
    • Photo album
    • Activity schedule

Achievements

Industrial and urban clean-up

Cleaning up the water of the St. Lawrence and its tributaries was a priority in the first phase of the program. Remarkable results have been achieved.

• Characterization of the effluent of 106 of the most polluting plants on the St. Lawrence (phases 1 and 2) – from tens of thousands analyses of water samples and more than 800 bioassays.

• Set-up of a team of specialists to design clean-up plans with the industries (phase 1).

• Reduction in the toxic liquid discharges of 50 of the most polluting plants on the St. Lawrence by 96% (phases 1 and 2). – 80 of the 106 participating plants succeeded in virtually eliminating 11 persistent and bioaccumulable toxic substances.
  [Video (This link goes to the Radio-Canada Web site)]

• Carrying out, with the St. Lawrence Centre (Environment Canada research centre), of 125 development and technology transfer projects in the area of industrial and municipal depollution (phases 1, 2, 3).

• Environmental, geographical and legislative profiling of three industrial sectors generating 18 toxic substances judged a priority for the clean-up of the river (phase 3) – metallurgy, metals and chemicals, whose companies, mostly SMEs, use municipal effluents.

• Implementation of prevention and reduction measures at source, with several SMEs generating toxic substances (phase 3).

• Achievement of the Granby Action Plan (phase 3). – A pilot project involving some 40 factories, aimed at reducing industrial and urban pressures associated with the discharge of toxic substances into the Yamaska River.

• Assessment of the toxic potential of different disinfection processes of 12 pharmaceutical products, in the effluent of the Montreal purification station (phase 4). – In line with concerns regarding the multitude of new industrial substances which are added each year to the “classic” St. Lawrence contaminants.

• Measuring the toxicity of effluents of the purification stations of 15 municipalities, such as Montreal, Quebec City and Gatineau (phase 3).