Standing at a height of 1,250 feet, the Sudbury Superstack is the second tallest chimney in the world and runner-up to the CN Tower for the tallest structure in Canada. Until 1987, Sudbury Ontario had the dubious honour of having the world’s tallest smokestack. Today, the Stack is seen by some as a marker for Sudbury’s rich mining heritage but for others, it is also part of a much larger history of health and environmental problems.
Since the nineteenth century, Sudbury’s landscape was ravaged by the effects of the mining industry; over the years the vegetation disappeared with acid rain, and farmers found themselves unable to grow crops in the highly acidic soil. The International Nickel Company (INCO) built the Superstack in 1972 to disperse sulphur dioxide (SO2) and other pollutants away from the area, thereby addressing health and environmental concerns.
The Stack’s construction coincided with a community regreening movement, which has reversed some of the environmental damage. The Superstack redcuced local emission rates in recent years, but one could argue that INCO simply passed the buck, and the dispersion of SO2 became somebody else’s problem. Moreover, the Sudbury area continues to have higher rates of asthma and lung cancer than other parts of Ontario. But, for better or for worse, the Superstack has been a landmark along the Sudbury skyline for over forty years. And when Vale (formerly INCO) recently proposed demolishing the Superstack in the local media, we watched as an interesting public debate about the significance, history, and future of the stack ensued.
On November 3rd 2014, Kelly Strong of Vale announced that the company considered demolishing the Superstack. This news is not surprising and is in keeping with Vale’s ongoing $1 billion Clean AER Project, designed to reduce SO2 emissions. If the Superstack is removed it will be replaced by a smaller chimney, but this will mark a big departure not only in the company’s operational history, but for local history as well.
We realized that as historians, we can help curate and analyze the varying memories and opinions people shared about the Stack. A brief snapshot of the conversation on the Northern Life’s Facebook page reveals that many Sudburians have a strong connection with the Superstack. While several people questioned whether the Stack deserved to be classified as an iconic landmark, a great deal more believed it represented a part of Sudbury’s history and it should be preserved.
Sudburians argued that the Superstack was a beacon of homecoming; seeing the Stack jutting out of the skyline filled them with a sense of nostalgia and the realization that they were home. Commentators also noted that the Stack is often used by residents and outsiders to locate Sudbury. Some might say, “oh, you’re from the city with the giant smoke stack,” or, “Sudbury has the Superstack, right?” Not only do locals identify the Superstack with ‘home,’ but residents and visitors also use it to situate themselves in place. The potential absence of the Superstack as a physical reference point along the Sudbury horizon could create a (harmless yet interesting) sense of loss and dislocation for some.
For the rest of this article, click here: http://activehistory.ca/2014/11/its-history-like-it-or-not-the-significance-of-sudburys-superstack/