& - Friday, May 31. 1991 - North Shore News

Air cleared over emission charges

Ballard head responds to
sulphur-dioxide complaints

SULPHUR-DIOXIDE emissions are not a problem at
North Vancouver-based Ballard Battery Systems Corp., the

company’s president has said.

Avraham Elarar made the
comment in response to com-
plaints from a_neigboring
businessman who said he has been
complaining about the problem
for two years without any
satisfaction.

David Evenson had claimed that
sulphur-dioxide emissions coming
from Ballard have irritated his
and his co-workers’ eyes and
throats. He also claimed that
other businesses in the area have
complained about the emissions.

Evenson initially said he had
spoken to Ballard officials several
times but that he had not received
any satisfaction,

But shortly after the News con-
tacted Elarar last Thursday and
informed him of Evenson's com-
plaints, Evenson called the News
back to say he had had a tour of

By Surj Rattan
News Reporter

the Ballard facility and was now
happy with Ballard’s operations.

Ballard, a subsidiary of Ballard
Power Systems of North Van-
couver, produces high-energy
lithium-sulphur-dioxide batteries.

The batteries, which can per-
form at extremely low
temperatures and have a longer
shelf life than conventional bat-
teries. were recently used by the
Canadian military and the United
States Army in the Gulf War.

“I'd like to retract my earlier
statements,’’ Evenson said. ‘‘I just
had a tour and it looks like he has
a pretty good operation. Now I
see there is nothing wrong there,

it’s a successful operation.”

But prior to being given a tour
of Bailard's facility, Evenson said
the sulphur-dioxide emissions had
been coming from Ballard's back
door into the neighborhood and
that the company should either
keep its doors closed or shut down
its operations until it corrects the
problem.

“*He’s shut the doors now,"
Evenson said afterwards.

He had complained that the
sulphur-dioxide emissions had
been giving him headaches, red
eyes and a dry throat.

Evenson originally had misgiv-
ings abuut an air scrubbing device
recently installed at Ballard that
he said had been malfunctioning.

But following the tour of the
Ballard facility, Evensoi said he
was satisfied the scrubber had
been fixed and was working pro-
perly.

Evenson admitted that after he
contacted the Workers’ Compen-
sation Board (WCB) about the
problem an inspector came to the
site and said Ballard was in com-
pliance with its permitted emis-
sions levels.

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The McDiarmids plan to buy a
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And Elarar denied that the
sulphur-dioxide emissions were
causing a problem. He said both
the WCB and the North Van-
couver City Fire Department had
inspected Ballard’s operations and
found that no problem existed.

“He (Evenson) has complained
a few times. We do have a scrub-
ber that takes all gases and scrubs
them. It’s a huge system we put in
place that we didn’t have to,”

said Elarar. ‘‘It reduces the gases
and it works very well.”’

He added that there are about
100 people who work at Ballard
and none of the employees has
any health problems.

“We do spend a lot of money
to make sure we keep a clean en-
vironment,”’ said Elarar, who ad-
ded that several of Ballard’s
employees are trained in fire-
fighting techniques.

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