WINDSOR, Ont. — The Ambassador Bridge is telling its bridge workers to wave through trucks carrying hazardous cargo in violation of a U.S. ban, according to a document obtained by The Windsor Star.

A copy of a permission letter, signed Dec. 6 by Detroit International Bridge Company general manager Dave Jolly, advises bridge employees that trucks carrying a corrosive material for General Chemical Corp. were free to cross the international link seven days per week.

The letter informs the bridge’s toll collectors that “the bearer of this letter … has permission to transport the commodity ‘Alum’ across The Ambassador Bridge.”

The union for Canada Customs workers says there’s little it can do
to enforce a U.S. rule restricting hazmat on the bridge

The letter advises bridge employees that “this is a ‘mild’ corrosive and the truck will be placarded as such.” Jolly’s letter states passage is permitted seven days per week until March 1, 2006, “when an updated letter must be obtained.”

Bridge spokesman Skip McMahon claimed last week he was unaware of any such shipments.

But a representative of another firm, Harold Marcus Ltd., a Bothwell-based transportation company, said it uses the crossing almost daily to import alum. The representative said the company did so with the bridge’s blessing and said other companies are also granted permission to haul hazardous cargo across the bridge.

Corrosives, explosives, flammables and radioactive goods are all banned from the Ambassador Bridge under the U.S. federal government’s national hazardous materials route registry. Alum, or aluminum sulfate, is a corrosive which can form sulfuric acid when mixed with water.

Windsor West MP Brian Masse is calling on federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day to investigate the reports that restricted hazardous materials are being permitted to cross the privately owned span.

“Should an accident occur it will have grave consequences to people, the environment, and trade. It is without doubt the status quo is completely unacceptable,” Masse wrote last week in a letter demanding Ottawa investigate “this urgent matter.”

Messages left Monday and Tuesday with spokesmen for the bridge were not returned. Likewise, Day’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

The driver of a Harold Marcus tanker truckload of alum delivered Tuesday to Windsor’s Lou Romano Water Reclamation Plant wouldn’t say how he crossed the border. As part of a $1-million 2006 city contract with the Cambridge-based Kissner Group, such loads are sourced in the U.S.

The approved area border crossings for hazmat loads are the Windsor-Detroit truck ferry or Sarnia’s Blue Water Bridge, but not the Ambassador, which is privately owned by Grosse Point, Mich. trucking mogul and powerbroker Matty Moroun.

Some truckers claim they remove hazmat placards to
move across the Ambassador

Masse said he’s heard from truckers who claim they simply remove their hazardous materials placards in order to cross the Ambassador, which is quicker and cheaper than the truck barge or Blue Water Bridge. In the past, the owners of the bridge have argued they can determine what should or shouldn’t cross over their private property.

In fact, anyone, including law enforcement and bridge engineers are allowed on the bridge only at the owners’ discretion. State police are generally banned from bridge property but enforce hazmat rules on access streets.

“Inconsistent policies and enforcement of hazmat regulations endangers us all by emboldening and encouraging those that wish to operate outside law. It will only lead to a bad result,” says Gregg Ward, owner of the ferry service that takes hazmat trucks across the Detroit River.

A spokesperson for Canada Customs’ workers union says there’s little his members can do either. “It’s pretty scary stuff. Some trucks can sneak by, and there’s nothing Customs can do — we can’t enforce that law,” said Marie-Claire Coupal, Windsor branch president for the Customs Excise Union.

Hazardous goods shipments on local roads are the responsibility of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO), but deciding what’s allowed onto the bridge from the Canadian side is left to the bridge’s owners.

“Although it is not an offence to transport dangerous goods across the bridge, the bridge authority prohibits access to trucks carrying hazardous material,” MTO spokeswoman Emna Dhahak stated in an e-mailed response to questions by The Star.

Masse said it’s “complete hypocrisy” for Canada not to have the same safety regulations in place as the American authorities have on their side of the Ambassador. Allowing the bridge company to issue special permission to some carriers of hazardous materials “shows how lax we are … it’s why I’m asking for a full investigation.”

An interim report issued last summer in Ottawa by the Senate Security and Defence Committee sounded an ominous warning of how fragile the most important commercial border link is between Canada and the U.S.

“If somebody really wanted to tear into Canada’s political and economic future and wound the Americans at the same time, an optimal target might well be the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor,” stated the report, entitled Borderline Insecure.

The report also make several blunt recommendations to the federal government — addressing everything from a new Windsor-Detroit bridge crossing; reverse customs clearance, armed Canada Customs inspectors.

It also dedicates an entire chapter to Windsor-Detroit — frequently referred to as the world’s busiest trade gateway. The committee urged governments on both sides of the border to expedite another bridge crossing in order to create much-needed redundancy at the border location.

— Files reprinted with permission from the Windsor Star