Deadline extended for muffler installation

DONKIN — If a loud noise begins while Betty Rankin is out walking these days, it makes her anxious.

Rankin, 66, has lived in Port Morien her whole life and is one of the residents kept awake at night by the whirring coming from the idled Donkin Mine’s industrial fans.

“I do a lot of walking and if I’m out and all of a sudden I hear a motor running, I get anxiety,” said Rankin. “Because I’m thinking it’s the fan noise starting up again.”

A MISSED DEADLINE

She said she knows of others living in the regions around Donkin Mine who have developed similar issues after nearly three years of the drone.

“Sometimes (the noise) revs for days and even weeks at a time, and that’s when it becomes unbearable. The Christmas (2021) week was the worst I’ve ever heard it, and it ran that way for over a week,” said Rankin.

Rankin and others in the community are now facing potentially several more weeks of the Donkin hum after Kameron Collieries ULC, which owns Donkin Mine, extended the deadline to install silencers for its two industrial fans.

December 2021 was the original deadline given to install the noise reduction system after Kameron Collieries junior mining engineer Cameron Mclennan announced that Kameron Coal had reached an agreement with the U.k.-based Industrial Noise & Vibration Centre (INVC) to work on a design for a noise reduction system for the mine’s two ventilation fans, which were first increased in diameter in August 2019.

INVC is the engineering consultant that confirmed in April 2021 that nearby residents are being exposed to a very high-level, low-frequency drone/hum from the idled Donkin Mine’s fans at 239 hertz. INVC said that the noise from Donkin Mine at 7 km away was the worst they’d seen in over 30 years.

SEARCHING FOR A RESOLUTION

“All we ask (for) is a resolve to this issue,” said Rankin. “They say they are going to install these mufflers, but that was supposed to be done in December, now they’re saying January. Like, if we don’t keep on them, what’s going to happen to the issue?

“If they sell the mine, then who’s responsible? Do we have to start all over again from step one? It’s unbelievable the government’s allowing this to happen.”

The noise pollution from the fans has plagued the regions within eight to 10 kilometres of the idled mine since August 2019, when the existing fans were increased in diameter. The idled mine closed its operations in March 2020 but the fans continue to ventilate methane from the mine.

The Post reached out to Mclennan for information about the delay in installing the silencers and when the work will be completed by. Mclennan said he’s not authorized to give statements on behalf of Kameron Collieries, also known as Kameron Coal, and could not direct the Post to another person to reach out to.

Kameron Coal does not appear to have a website and does not have publicly available contact information for the public to reach out to.

“Kameron Coal continues to stall with the fix,” said Catherine Fergusson, a resident of South Head across the bay from Donkin Mine and one of the founders of the Cow Bay Environmental Coalition, a group of residents formed to protest the negative environmental and health impacts of Donkin Mine.

“The noise was so bad over the three-week period of Christmas that ... like there was so much methane coming out of those fans that the noise was constant and piercing. I couldn’t sleep at night.”

LOOKING TO FEBRUARY

Fergusson said many residents and coalition members are at a loss for what to do after two years of fighting for quiet.

“I find myself in this position where I own my home, I pay taxes, it’s a right to be able to sleep in my own home and I can’t get a good night’s sleep,” said Fergusson.

“We’ve met with Nova Scotia Environment, we’ve sent letters to the ministers and they have not protected our rights . ... They haven’t addressed this issue. They’re allowing Cape Bretoners to be exposed to low-frequency noise and the adverse health effects that happen as a result.”

The Post spoke to Coun. James Edwards, who said that the initial installation time was set for the end of 2021, but that there were delays in getting information from INVC and in communication between them and Kameron Coal. Edwards said the silencer designs are now in the fabrication process in Cape Breton.

“They’re hoping to have the fabrication (of the silencers), at least, done by mid-january,” said Edwards. “Then there would be several contractors involved for the actual installation.”

Edwards said that midfebruary is a “more likely” deadline for completion of the work and that the deadlines are “a moving target.”

“They are moving toward satisfying the noise reduction mechanism, it’s just taking a little longer than they, and we, anticipated and hoped for. But I’m confident that the production is continuing and that the … noise reduction mechanism will be installed.”