AIM's Moncton scrapyard to get shipping container wall to reduce noise - Action News
Home WebMail Sunday, November 10, 2024, 09:33 PM | Calgary | 0.4°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
New Brunswick

AIM's Moncton scrapyard to get shipping container wall to reduce noise

A wall of stacked shipping containers painted green is planned at a Moncton, N.B., scrapyard to reduce the noise reaching nearby homes.

Residents have complained about sounds, smells from Toombs Street site

Cranes moving material with train cars to the left and a wall of large cement blocks in the foreground.
Machinery moving scrap material at the American Iron & Metal scrapyard in Moncton, N.B., on Aug. 2. (Pascal Raiche-Nogue/Radio-Canada)

A wall of stacked shipping containers painted green is planned at a Moncton, N.B., scrapyard to reduce the noise reaching nearby homes.

American Iron & Metal, known as AIM,is expected to install what Moncton city staff describe as a "noise mitigation wall"at the company's scrapyard on Toombs Street.

Elaine Aucoin, the city's general manager ofsustainable growth and development services, told Moncton council on Tuesday that the city has issued a permitfor the wall.

The city saidthe wall will have containers stacked three high. It's expected to be about8.5 metres(28 feet)tall and43 metres (240 feet)long.It's planned between the street and a rail spur where scrap material is loaded into train cars.

The company's provincial operating approval, extended earlier this summer,requires it to implement a a noise mitigation planby Nov. 1.

Coun. Shawn Crossman, whose ward includes the area, said in an interview he's concerned aboutthe plan.

"All you're going to be doing is redirecting the noise," Crossman said.

A large pile of scrap material with residential properties in the background.
The scrapyard shown last fall before piles of material were reduced with nearby homes shown in the background. (Roger Cosman/CBC)

During the council meeting, Crossman requested city staff hold a public meeting in the neighbourhood, preferably by the end of September.Aucoin said they would look into holding a meeting.

AIM'soperations in New Brunswick have faced increased scrutiny after a fire almost a year ago at its Saint John port location.

With the port site shut down, the company increasingly used the Moncton location to ship scrap. That led to residents raising the alarm about increased noise, pollutionand trainsblocking Mill Road.

In May, Public Safety Minister Kris Austin sent the company a letter threatening to revoke its salvage dealers licence, which expires in June 2025. Austin has yet to make a decision on the issue.

AllanDearing, a spokesperson for Public Safety, told CBCNews on Aug. 28 that there's no timeline for a decision.

Moncton Mayor Dawn Arnold sent Austin a letter Aug. 7 outlining the concerns residents have voiced to the city about the site, which AIM took over in March 2023.

"Residents in that neighbourhood who had, until now, not expressed any significant concerns with the previous operations, have indicated to us that the operations are having a direct and severe impact on their quality of life," Arnold wrote.

"They have expressed anger, frustration, and discouragement as this has been dragging on for months without a resolution to the difficult conditions that they state they are living under."

The letter was sent days after aseparate approval through the Department of Environment and Local Government to operate the site, which had been set to expire Aug. 1, was extended to Nov. 30. That extension added the noise mitigation condition.

Aucoin told council that the city's bylaw enforcement division "continues to receive, as well as actively enforce, complaintswith respect to noise as well as debris."

A group of four people listening to a man guesturing.
Moncton councillors Monique LeBlanc, Charles Lger, Shawn Crossman and Deputy Mayor Paulette Thriault listen to resident Roy MacMullin during a protest near the AIM site in May. (Shane Magee/CBC)

Deputy Mayor Paulette Thriault, whose ward includes the AIM site, asked city staff for more details about the enforcement efforts.

Nick Robichaud, the city's general manager of legal services, said complaints were being reviewed by staff like with any other property.

"There's very little that I can say beyond that," Robichaud said whenThriault asked for a more general explanation.

"We can't get into discussing matters that are going to be before the courts because that could impact the enforcement process, the investigation process and the legal outcomes. So we don't discuss those publicly."

The site's zoning doesn't allow a scrapyard.However, it has been allowed to continue because the zoning changed after a scrapyard was already operating, Aucoin told council.

Add some good to your morning and evening.

Get the latest top stories from across New Brunswick in your inbox every weekday.

...

The next issue of CBC New Brunswick newsletter will soon be in your inbox.

Discover all CBC newsletters in theSubscription Centre.opens new window

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Google Terms of Service apply.