The House Shook. I Shrugged
The Saturday Huddle is a weekly column that features opinion, analysis and reflections on Huddle stories, podcasts and business news in the region. Mark Leger is the editor of Huddle and the Director of News Content for Acadia Broadcasting.
I heard a loud booming noise and the house shook early one morning as I was getting ready for work. I was startled at first, then shrugged. It’s just another explosion at the recycling facility, I realized. I walked from the kitchen to the front of the house and looked across the harbour and sure enough, a plume of smoke had formed over a mountain of tangled metal wreckage.
I live in the south end of Saint John and can see the American Iron and Metal (AIM) scrap metal recycling facility on the west side of the harbour. For years, there has been controversy about its location so close to residential neighbourhoods. Residents have been bothered by the frequent explosions caused by things like partially full fuel tanks getting crushed during the recycling process.
There have been frequent temporary shutdowns and news stories about resident complaints over the years but the facility remains a feature of the “working port,” with a 40-year-lease to operate there.
The facility was back in the news recently for a tragic reason when its second employee in seven months died. Sixty-year-old Darrell Richards died on July 1, one day after being injured at the west side facility. A stop-work order has been issued for the piece of machinery involved in the incident — a press roller for preparing for recycling – and WorkSafeNB is investigating.
Saint John-Rothesay MP Wayne Long called for the facility’s license to be revoked, connecting the workers’ deaths with the greater community concerns about the threat posed by the facility being in the middle of the city, so close to densely packed residential neighbourhoods.
“I’m all about economic activity, I’m all about jobs, but there’s a point where this is not safe, it’s not safe for the workers, it’s not safe for the community, and we need to take action,” he said.
I understand why Long linked the concerns of area residents and the health and safety of the workers on-site, but ultimately I see them as separate issues. WorkSafeNB will investigate and determine whether charges should be laid for violations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Calls for revoking its license are a longstanding issue more connected to the belief that the facility just doesn’t belong there. It’s a commonplace debate in cities like Saint John with “working ports” and large industrial and commercial facilities like oil refineries and mills.
As a Saint John city councillor noted in a recent debate about properly taxing industry, it’s one of the reasons why many people choose to live in quieter, suburban neighbouhhoods.
Ambient noise is a feature of urban life, a byproduct of the commercial activity that is the livelihood of most of the people that live in the city centre, suburbs, and nearby rural areas.
Nearly 10 years ago, I produced a spoken-word commentary called Sounds of the City for the local CBC morning show. I talked about running early on a Sunday morning in a residential, east-side neighbourhood that would have been quiet if it weren’t for the steady rumble of the nearby Irving Oil refinery.
I talked about playing in the backyard with my kids, which has a lot of greenery for a place in the city centre. We have flowering apple and magnolia trees and a grassy area with a picnic table and fire pit. It’s quiet most of the time except on the afternoon in question. You could hear the birds chirp if it weren’t for the “crushing and colliding sounds [from the metal recycling facility that] created a metal soundtrack for this otherwise idyllic scene.”
For me, though, it’s not about eliminating this urban noise pollution altogether or moving to a quieter suburban neighbourhood. It’s about making reasonable accommodations so that commercial activity can take place but people can still live in relative peace and quiet; figuring out what belongs and what doesn’t, and what mitigating measures can be put in place for activities you can’t get rid of entirely.
Ultimately, most people want the economic growth and prosperity that comes from commercial activity, they just don’t want it making a racket in their backyard when they’re trying to sleep or enjoy a weekend morning with their families.
Halifax is having this kind of debate now too, but about the housing boom that’s created a frenzy of construction activity seven days a week to try and meet the demand of the fast-growing population.
In a Huddle story early this week, associate editor Trevor Nichols wrote about a proposed bylaw that would place stricter limits on the times that construction work could take place in the city. Currently, it can happen between 7 a.m. and 9:30 p.m., with shorter periods on the weekends. The proposed rule changes would mean construction activity would have to end by 8 p.m.
Related: Industry Says Noise Bylaw Would Impact Costs, Timelines Of New Halifax Housing
Duncan Williams, the president and CEO of the Construction Association of Nova Scotia, told Trevor he understands that people are bothered by the noise but says it’s the price of growth.
“I’m not being unsympathetic to somebody who’s living next to a construction site,” he said. “It is inconvenient, is it loud and noisy. We get it, we understand it. [But] the reality is every single property, every single resident at some point had to experience that inconvenience as we built the city… that’s just the reality of a growing city.”
Councillor Kathryn Morse says the construction of large apartment towers in her area is an endless disruption for nearby residents.
“They get no break… they can’t go outside their houses, they’ve lost the whole summer,” Morse said. “I just don’t see that we’ve hit a balance that respects people’s rights to their own enjoyment of their own houses. I hear from residents almost every day about this.”
It’s why the proposed bylaw should be passed, even if it means higher costs and longer timelines. Residents deserve some peace and quiet, even though they’re still subjected to some form of noise for most of the day.
I mentioned at the beginning that I shrugged when I realized it was just an explosion from the nearby recycling facility. It’s become an acceptable form of noise in my immediate environment, not something that needs to be addressed. I shouldn’t be just tuning it out.