Bovar PCB Incinerator PCB/Dioxin HotSpot


Swan Hills, Alberta, Canada


Emission source


PCBs and dioxin (PCDD/F)


PCB fugitive emissions (estimated total for 1994):(1) 33 kg.
Company's own estimate of POPs emissions from October 16, 1996 accident:(2)

PCBs: 4.2 kg,

PCDD/F: 3.4 g TEQ.

PCB average ambient air concentrations (1997):(3)
normal level: 0.153 parts per billion (ppb), following the explosion of July 21, 1997: 0.478 ppb,

PCDD/F concentration (wet weight) in liver of a deer in the vicinity of the plant (1996):(4) 1 732 parts per trillion (ppt) TEQ.

Average POPs concentrations (whole weight) in 4 deer from the Swan Hills area (1996/1997):(5)
PCBs, liver: 0.074 parts per million (ppm),
PCBs, fat: 0.253 ppm,
PCDD/F, liver: 500 ppt TEQ,
PCDD/F, fat: 45 ppt TEQ,

PCDD/F stack emission test results (1996 and undated respectively):(6)
Large (F.B. Davis) incinerator: 0.009 ng TEQ/m3.
Small (C.E. Raymond) incinerator: 4.4 ng TEQ/m3.

Total amount of hazardous waste, most contaminated with PCBs,(2) processed between the start of operations in 1987 and the end of 1998: 200 000 tonnes(7)


The owner of the Swan Hills incinerator(s), also variously known as the Alberta Special Waste Treatment Centre or Swan Hills Treatment Centre, is Bovar, Inc. and its subsidiary Alberta Special Waste Management Corporation. Prior to July 12, 1996, the Province of Alberta held a 40% stake. At that point the Province relinquished its stake but continues to share in the net income of the Centre on a sliding scale until the end of 2003.(8) However, these sums are tiny compared to the approximately $500 million of taxpayers' money sunk into the incinerators since 1987.(9,10)

Responsibility is also shared by the private and public clients who continue to send PCBs and other hazardous wastes to Swan Hills. In 1998, the Government of Québec sent all of its remaining high-level PCB waste to Swan Hills,(11,12) during a period when the federal government had suspended its own shipments because of safety concerns.(13) Noranda has said it may send hexachlorobenzene, dioxin and PCB wastes to Swan Hills from its new Magnola magnesium plant in Asbestos, Québec.(14)


Incineration of PCBs and other chlorinated wastes has two fundamental flaws: the presence of oxygen, allowing the formation of dioxins and furans (approximately 100 000 times more toxic than PCBs themselves); and the potential for uncontrolled releases. Uncontrolled releases at the Swan Hills incinerators have been particularly severe as a result of high fugitive emissions and accidents.