NNSL (Jun 01/98) - It will take another 10 years before the last vestiges of the Cold War are removed from the North.

Scott Munn, design manager for Defence Construction Canada, which is handling the DEW Line cleanup project on behalf of the Department of National Defence, gave the estimate to MLAs last week.

Munn made a presentation to the legislative assembly Tuesday afternoon to update members on the status of the project.

DND is responsible for 21 of the Distant Early Warning sites, while the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs is overseeing the cleanup of the other half, in addition to five other abandoned military sites.

The radar surveillance operations have been replaced by more modern facilities. Half of them were decommissioned in 1963 while the others were abandoned in the late '80s and early '90s. The sites are contaminated with PCB- and lead-based toxic paint and other materials.

The cost of DND's cleanup efforts will amount to $300 million dollars, according to Munn. Only a third of that will be covered by the U.S. government, which is paying in the form of military equipment.

The work at the old Tuktoyaktuk base has all but been completed, according to Munn. Cape Hooper and Cape Perry are expected to be finished by the end of this summer. Nicholson Peninsula and Cambridge Bay will be tendered out this year.

A co-operation agreement has been reached with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation and a similar agreement is in the works with Nunavut Tunngavik.

The final figure for DIAND's sites won't be tallied until the entire project is completed because each site is being assessed on a case-by-case basis, according to Scott Mitchell, who is in charge with the contaminated sites office for DIAND.

Four of DIAND's sites have been completed -- Horton River, Pierce Point, Coral Harbour and Iqaluit (Upper Basin). The contaminants from those areas were shipped to Swan Hills, Alta., where they were incinerated, Mitchell said.

Three other sites are in progress while Resolution Island, the most costly single project so far at $30 million, is to commence later this year. Defence Construction Canada is burying contaminated paint and debris in landfills, such as the one in Cambridge Bay, which measures close to 27 square metres.

The most poisonous materials are buried two metres, deep below the permafrost line, while less contaminated materials are used as layers on top, Munn said.