Akwesasne residents have concerns about proposed hydrogen facility in N.Y. state

Residents of Akwesasne are concerned about plans to develop a hydrogen facility near the Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) community.

Air Products and Chemicals Inc., an industrial gas company, is proposing to construct the facility in Massena, N.Y., about 30 kilometres west of Akwesasne, which straddles the Quebec, Ontario and New York state borders.

Dr. Ojistoh Horn, a family physician with the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne's department of health for the last nine years, is leading efforts to raise awareness of community concerns with the project.

"This was a place where people went to pick medicines and get healthy," said Horn, a board member of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.

"We still lost so much and have been removed from our ability to steward the land."

While the company has consulted the environment division of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe (the elected government on the U.S. side), she said the community — which is split between the United States and Canada — was largely unaware of the project.

"It totally doesn't go with free prior and informed consent," said Horn.

The facility will produce up to 35 tonnes per day of liquid hydrogen by electrolysis using water from the St. Lawrence River. The hydrogen is intended for use as a low-carbon fuel in the transportation industry.

Any water discharge, or effluent, from the facility is proposed to flow to the Massena Power Canal, which connects to the lower Grasse River and eventually back to the St. Lawrence. 

In December, Air Products applied to New York state for a State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) permit for wastewater discharge.

Horn is among a grassroots group of residents calling for the permit to be denied. Their concerns include the clearing of the land for the plant, truck traffic of highly flammable liquid hydrogen, the consumption of water from the river, and the contents and temperature of the effluent.

The effects of the wastewater discharge on the already contaminated river also concern Horn.

"How they discharge the effluent, that upsets me…. It's how it disturbs sleeping giants," said Horn.

"It's not just so much that we don't want any more environmental [harm], we don't want to disturb what has been put to sleep."