Hamilton's steel mills are polluting above Ontario rules even after exemption expired 1 year ago

It doesn't matter how often Stephanie De Francesco tries to wash away black grime from her car, house and deck near Hamilton's industrial sector.

She says everything outside her Beach Road home will inevitably be coated the next day and her four-year-old son will return from the park with soot-stained clothes, shoes and hands. 

"This is an affordable area for families to live in but we feel we can't stay as long as we would like because it's not safe for us," De Francesco said. 

De Francesco, 30, said the soot in the area appears to have gotten worse in the three years she has lived there, though she doesn't know what it is composed of, nor can she be sure of which industries are responsible for it. 

She does live a few blocks away from Canada's largest steel producer ArcelorMittal Dofasco, however. In the process of manufacturing flat rolled steel products, the site's coke ovens release soot as well as chemicals into the air including carcinogens benzene and benzo(a)pyrene.  

De Francesco said despite the questions over the origins of the soot, for her it's a daily reminder of the air pollution she and her family are exposed to. 

"I'm definitely concerned about underlying health issues," she said. 

Residents, local politicians and environmental advocates all say the province should be holding Dofasco and other big polluters accountable by enforcing stricter air quality standards. 

For years, the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks has permitted Dofasco to emit benzene, benzo(a)pyrene, manganese and suspended particulate matter well above provincial standards. For example, Dofasco  could release 22 times more benzene. 

Dofasco's exemptions ended over a year ago, but it continues to emit the contaminants at higher levels than what's allowed, according to its annual report for 2023.  

Similar exemptions for other steel mills in Hamilton — Stelco and Harsco Canada — have also expired. Those companies did not respond to requests for comment. 

Dofasco's environment general manager Gas Gebara said in a statement the company is committed to "maintaining compliance" with environmental regulations. 

The Ministry of the Environment has allowed their site specific standards to expire because it's finalizing a proposal for a new "technical standard" that will apply to all steel plants, said spokesperson Gary Wheeler. 

This technical standard will be a departure from the traditional process that assessed each plant individually.