In a surprise victory for local environmentalists on Friday, the province has ruled that the proposed Port Fuels gasification plant on Hamilton's waterfront requires a full independent environmental assessment.

In a letter to Port Fuels, the ministry says there are "significant issues" with the project, namely impacts to air quality, ground and surface water.

'An individual environmental assessment is necessary to address concerns..."specifically, the potential impacts to air quality, groundwater and surface water. - Ministry of Environment

"Despite multiple exchanges of information before, during and after the public review period," it reads, "some concerns of this ministry are still outstanding and appear to overlap with many of the concerns raised in the elevation requests."

The "bump up" to a full, individual assessment had been requested by the city, many in the neighhourhood, local environmentalists and the provincial NDP.

The city's own consultant even advised that a bump up was unlikely. So this is a pleasant surprise, said Matthew Green, a Ward 3 councillor and opponent of the project.

"It means vindication for years of work by the residents," he said, "and advocacy in getting more solid data on this issue."

Andrea Horwath, Hamilton Centre MPP and head of the Ontario NDP, issued a statement saying she's been pushing the issue at Queen's Park.

"Today, I'm pleased to tell Hamiltonians that we got results and the project will now be subject to a full environmental assessment," she said.

Port Fuels plans to build a waste-to-energy plant at Pier 15. The plant is high-tech, the company says, and will create jobs, generate little pollution and divert waste from landfill.

Meanwhile, city councillors, public health officials and some activists worry about the image and health impacts the plant would have on Hamilton.

The city hired a consultant, WSP, to do its own environmental assessment. The consultant highlighted some red flags, including that the Gasplasma technology had never been tested on the scale proposed in Hamilton. But Pier 15 is federal land owned by the Hamilton Port Authority, so the city has little say.

​Port Fuels has already completed an environmental screening— a less complete environment review — and had hoped that that level of review would be enough to satisfy the environment ministry.

The company couldn't be reached for comment on Friday.

Specific concerns

In its letter, the ministry specifically cites several concerns, including the following:

On air quality, it questions the completeness and methodology of it determination the project would no impact the city's air quality.

It says: "Inputting incomplete information into the Project's air quality assessment is inherently flawed, and does not give the ministry any confidence that the project will not have significant adverse affects on the environment and human health."

Other issues:

On transporting waste by barge, the company did not provide any assessment of potential impacts.

On the combustion byproduct, the ministry is concerns about how it will be managed.

The Ministry says the company did not sufficiently assess the impacts on groundwater.

"After an extensive technical review by the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, Port Fuels & Materials Services Inc. (PFMSI) will be required to provide additional environmental information related to its proposed energy-from-waste facility in Hamilton," read a release from Minister Glen Murray.