This is a promise made by the environment and agriculture ministers the day after a report from the Enquête program was broadcast last December. Radio-Canada revealed that at least five American states are exporting such sludge to Quebec.
South of the border, Maine has already banned the practice as a preventative measure. Tests conducted revealed significant concentrations of PFAS, potentially carcinogenic persistent pollutants, on farmland in this American state.
Unlike other hazardous materials such as lead, nickel, cadmium and arsenic, Quebec regulations do not currently regulate PFAS.
The government’s goal is to ban its use in all forms of municipal, industrial or paper sludge from outside Canada.
A new ordinance, but not before sowing
Since Radio-Canada’s reports aired, Quebec has announced revisions to regulations on the use of biosolids. The government has launched a 45-day consultation that will result in the adoption of amendments to the farm regulation.
But the adoption of this decree could only come at the end of spring, when the first seeds will already have been sown.
Meanwhile, Minister Benoit Charette has decided to impose a moratorium to avoid contaminating Quebec’s soil.
The measure, announced by Quebec in a press release, is welcomed by the President of the Order of Quebec Agronomists, Martine Giguère. We were for a moratorium until thresholds were developed. The ministry is currently working on this, she explains.
The draft regulation, which is the subject of the consultation, states that the new ban […] could have an impact on importers who have to look for other markets.
We don’t want to react to that for the time being, said the Englobe company, which imports American biosolids.
What about Quebec mud?
More than forty Québec communities have decided to stop importing biosolids from the US and have expressed concern about the use of Québec sewage sludge.
Tests conducted in a lab at the University of Montreal have shown that certain Quebec muds can have concentrations of PFAS equal to or higher than the old limits that prevailed in Maine before the mud ban.
Municipal sewage sludge, when not used in agricultural fields, must subsequently be buried or incinerated, which produces greenhouse gases. The President of the Ordre des agronomes believes that the recycling of fertilizer residues has several advantages, both from an agronomic point of view and in the fight against climate change.
In his press release, Minister Charette added that this is an effective way that should be favored in the fight against climate change.
Since the reports in La Semaine verte and Enquête, the Ministère de l’Environnement has set up a committee made up of about forty partners from the municipal, agricultural and industrial sectors, professional associations, ministries and companies, experts and scientists.