The company is committed to working cooperatively with local community groups and government to address environmental challenges. The Company works to improve communication and create opportunities for open dialogue between St Marys Cement, and the residential communities that surround the company’s lands.
The most important tool to measure environmental and social impacts is the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA, or Environmental Impact Assessment and Social).
This tool consists of a set of guidelines developed by independent consultants, governmental agencies, financial institutions and NGOs, among other stakeholders of the cement industry, under the coordination of the WBCSD (World Business Council for Sustainable Development), targeted to meet environmental and social concerns in quarries and cement plants, to identify critical points in each phase and direct in their assessment and management.
CSI member companies also assumed the individual commitment to draw up specific rehabilitation plans for their active mines (decommissioning plans). These plans are to be announced to local stakeholders and be regularly revised and updated. To this end, CSI established a set of ESIA-based directives that foresee information on the various stages of a unit’s operations, in some cases extending from the construction of the facilities up to the moment of closure.
St. Marys cement plant in Charlevoix, Michigan drew up a rehabilitation plan for its mines, which will be implemented after the unit’s closure – expected to occur in eighty years’ time. The plan is required by local legislation and its prime objective is to rehabilitate the region once the factory is shut down.
The project at the St. Marys unit aims to protect natural resources by implanting systems to protect against erosion and prevent landslides and rockfalls and water and air pollution. The anti-erosion measures include earth banks, straw bales, and appropriate topsoil covers. The plan also highlights ways in which the infrastructure surrounding the mine can be put to further use, including its buildings, roads, parking lots, installations, and garbage disposal tips.
The discarded rock, for example, so long as it is produced locally, could be covered over with soil suitable for re-vegetation using native plants. A hydric structure could also be activated if the site’s natural drainage system becomes overburdened.
A series of measures are in development to handle impacts on water quality caused by chemical spills. St. Marys currently operates and maintains various lakes and sedimentary basins for treating storm water and discharges from the mine. Effluent cleaning practices will be employed to minimize possible leaks and consequent impact on the water.
Before demolishing the buildings and foundations, all hazardous waste will need to be removed. Demolition residues will be loaded and transported to a specific storage site. The parking lots and roadways could also be demolished and transformed into recreational and residential areas.
Controlling cement and mine dust is a focal point in rehabilitation. To address this issue, the decommissioning plan includes the operation of a sprinkling system to dampen down the dust raised during the demolition as well as the periodical application of a magnesium chloride solution to the road surfaces
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