MONTREAL - The owners of a Beauharnois estate, heavily polluted over decades of industrial activity on neighbouring land, are asking the Superior Court of Quebec to force the multinational corporation Elkem to decontaminate the site, which Quebec has not been able to do for 30 parties are expected to complete their pleadings at the Salaberry-de-Valleyfield courthouse on Thursday and Friday, after eight years of Point, an 18-hectare site that is one of the few woodland areas bordering the St. Lawrence River in the Montreal region, still belongs to the descendants of Senator Charles-Séraphin Rodier, who acquired the land in or vulnerable species, such as red oak, swamp white oak, white oak, butternut, hackberry, narrow-leaved hickory and the only two known instances in Quebec of a type of hawthorn can be found on the site, said the Hone-Bellemare family in a biography of their the industrialization of the surrounding area, especially during the Second World War, the family refused to sell their estate, on which a mansion, private chapel, sugar shack and other buildings had been built over expected since 1991The operation, from 1973 to 1991, of the Union Carbide ferromanganese and ferrosilicon plant, acquired in 1984 by the Norwegian multinational Elkem, heavily contaminated the nearby Saint-Louis Point plant generated large amounts of smelting residue slag and other heavy metal residues, some of which were scattered over part of Saint-Louis Point, the family alleged in their ordered the restoration of Saint-Louis Point, as well as Elkem’s land, a few years after the plant closed, but it was never was during the Bureau of Environmental Public Hearings’ BAPE inquiry into the restoration plan for the banks of the St. Lawrence River bordering the former factory site, in 2010, that the Hone-Bellemare family learned the contamination of their land was much more serious than they had emissions contaminated the surrounding air and settled on the ground, resulting in the contamination of the soil at Saint-Louis Point exceeding the limit allowed for industrial use in some places, the lawsuit alleged, citing the Bureau’s Bureau said that Saint-Louis Point should be restored “in the near future.”Claims of over $1 millionAfter filing the BAPE report, the Hone-Bellemare family called on Elkem Métal Canada to decontaminate their property, without family took legal action in 2013 hoping to force the company to restore the site under the supervision of a company of its also claimed more than $1 million in damages, a “sum to be paid on the day of the hearing,” including $900,000 for owner Élisabeth Hone-Bellemare, $20,000 for her husband deceased since the lawsuit was filed and $20,000 for each of their six owners “have suffered and continue to suffer” from Elkem’s actions, which “deprive them of the full enjoyment of their property,” their lawsuit by the Kathryn SpiritElkem Métal Canada is working “hard” to settle the case, Jean Villeneuve, the company’s president, told La Presse, adding that he could not go into details because of the trial.“We have always been a good corporate citizen, we try to find solutions, but it is not always easy,” particularly because the old factory land no longer belongs to Elkem, Villeneuve was sold to Groupe Saint-Pierre, whose setbacks surrounding the dismantling of the Kathryn Spirit “delayed” decrepit freighter had been towed to Beauharnois for dismantling by Groupe Saint-Pierre in 2011, but the project had not been authorised and the vessel was sold to a Mexican company, which subsequently went bankrupt. Ottawa then paid Groupe Saint-Pierre to dismantle it on is refining the plan to restore the banks of its old land following an agreement with the province of Quebec, which would also include the restoration of the rest of the site by Groupe Saint-Pierre, Villeneuve said. He did not mention the fate of Saint-Louis Saint-Pierre is not ready to start work, blaming the slowness of negotiations with the City of Beauharnois and the Quebec government, said René Saint-Pierre, one of the managers of the Sherbrooke company, who did not wish to disclose his exact job title.“All you have to do is not leave a mark, and you won’t have a problem,” he Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change had not responded to questions from La Presse at the time of in grantsAlthough it has not yet completed the restoration of its former Beauharnois site, Elkem Métal Canada obtained $ million in grants from the Quebec government last September for a pilot biocarbon manufacturing product, made from forest residues, could replace mineral coal, which is used in large amounts by the Elkem plant in Saguenay. It uses carbon in its industrial process, said $26-million project, in which Ottawa has also invested $5 million, is expected to start next acquired by Chinese interests in 2011, employs 6,800 people in 29 factories around the world, including one in Saguenay, where it manufactures ferrosilicon, used to make steel and cast iron, and silicon metal, used to make silicone, aluminum and various other elements used in electronic story that goes back to New FranceA part of the seigneurial land of the Marquis de Beauharnois under the French regime, then of the Ellice seigneury under the English regime, Saint-Louis Point was acquired by businessman Charles-Séraphin Rodier in 1866, a year before the birth of the Canadian Confederation, according to a family biography. Having made a fortune in the sale of agricultural tools, Rodier became a senator and president of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste. After his death, his youngest daughter, Eva Rodier, and her husband, Alfred Thibaudeau, built a mansion in Victorian and Edwardian styles on the estate in 1895, which still exists today. The family welcomed many famous personalities to their mansion, such as the aviator Louis Blériot, writers Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Paul Claudel, and politicians Wilfrid Laurier, Lomer Gouin, Honoré Mercier and William Lyon Mackenzie THE CONVERSATION Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be a registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now it is freeSign InRegisterConversations are opinions of our readers and are subject to the Code of Conduct. The Star does not endorse these opinions.