AIM gets another extension to assess effectiveness of sound barrier at Moncton site | CBC News

The New Brunswick government has extended the operating approval for a Moncton scrapyard by four months to assess whether a wall of shipping containers is effective in reducing noise concerns. 

The Department of Environment and Local Government extended the approval for American Iron and Metal, or AIM, from Nov. 30 to March 31, 2025.

“The department is requiring AIM to measure the effectiveness of the noise barrier,” Vicky Lutes, a spokesperson for the department, said in an email this week. 

Lutes didn’t answer a question about how the effectiveness will be measured. 

Residents like Jo-Ann McCarthy, who live less than 200 metres away, say it hasn’t been effective since it was installed in recent weeks.

“It’s really not making a difference at all,” McCarthy said Thursday, adding that she still hears the noise in her home off Palisade Drive and can feel vibrations. 

McCarthy and other residents have called for the scrapyard to be relocated. 

“I would really like them to be moved out of here,” she said. “I don’t want anyone to lose their jobs, I’ve said that many times before. I want them to keep working.”

WATCH | Why a shipping container wall could keep AIM yard operating:

Can this wall save neighbours from noisy scrapyard?

American Iron and Metal has installed a wall made of shipping containers at its Moncton scrapyard to try to reduce noise levels for people living nearby.

AIM did not respond to a request for comment on the province’s extension. 

The approval is one of two issued by provincial departments for the site on Toombs Street, near Moncton’s Lewsville neighbourhood. 

AIM’s salvage dealers licence, issued by the Department of Public Safety, was extended just before the start of the provincial election to the end of June 2025. 

That extension came after former Public Safety minister Kris Austin had threatened to suspend or revoke the licence, based on concerns about the scrapyard’s location. 

Austin’s extension came with a condition that the scrapyard can’t increase the scale of its operation or process scrap from outside New Brunswick.

The Quebec-based company’s operations in New Brunswick have been under close scrutiny after a series of explosions, workplace deaths and a massive fire in September 2023 at its Saint John port site. 

That fire halted operations at the site and led to increased use of the Moncton plant to ship scrap by rail. AIM acquired the Moncton operation in March 2023. 

While concerns about that site pre-date AIM, residents say the level of activity, and therefore noise and other effects, significantly increased under AIM’s ownership. 

The company was fined $292.50 by the province, in 2023, for operating the site without approval.

In late 2023, inspections by the fire marshal led to an order to reduce the size of scrap piles and implement various fire safety measures, which the province has said it complied with.

AIM has launched several legal challenges against the province related to its Saint John port location.

Moncton council voted Monday to approve a new strategic plan with a reference to concerns about AIM and TransAqua’s sewage composting facility in the city’s north end.

Under a section about protecting the environment, council voted to add a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and “other forms of pollution,” such as noise, odour and dust.

The addition was requested by Coun. Bryan Butler and Deputy Mayor Paulette Thériault.

Butler has pushed for several years for more to be done about a foul smell in Moncton’s north end.

“Air and noise, we have another place, AIM on Toombs Street, that’s causing a lot of noise,” Butler said at a committee meeting Nov. 25. 

“If we’re going to have a plan going forward, we have to mention the issues the residents are having. In the north end, it’s the smell. In the east end, it’s the noise.”

An update on the TransAqua issue is expected to go to city council Dec. 16.

Almost a year ago the municipality issued a notice to comply with the city’s unsightly premises bylaw, demanding it clean up the site and area around a waterway. 

In September, councillors were told the city continues to get reports of alleged bylaw violations that were being investigated. No other details were given at the time. 

Aloma Jardine, a spokesperson for the city, said Thursday that there are currently no investigations underway but didn’t answer if any fines or other measures taken recently.