Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Kimmirut (Oct 16/00) - A shocking, accidental find on Resolution Island may require development of a new workplan for the cleanup of the former U.S. military base.

That's the tentative conclusion reached by Jerry Ell, president of the Qikiqtaaluk Corporation, the site contractor hired for the job by the department of Indian affairs and Northern development.

Ell said a transformer containing liquid PCBs was accidentally found by a work crew the day the camp closed for the season.

"We went into a different area that according to specifications, (had) no transformers. But we went in for one dig and they found a transformer," said Ell.

"With just that one scoop we found the transformer. What are the chances of that? What does that indicate," said Ell.

Currently in year three of a clean-up originally estimated to take five years and $40 million, Ell said he thought the find demands a whole new study of the island so QC and DIAND could identify precisely where all of the contaminants were located.

"(The find) indicates that a lot of the preliminary work that was done to identify areas of contamination was probably way off base," he said. "We have to identify what level of contamination is there."

Ell said the transformer, left exactly where it was found until it can be dealt with next summer, has changed the scope of the remaining work on what is widely regarded as the most contaminated site in Nunavut.

"We can't go into an area that according to plan isn't highly contaminated when it is. Dealing with liquid PCBs is very different than moving barrels of debris," he said.

According to Scott Mitchell, the head of DIAND's contaminated sites office and one of the driving forces behind the clean-up project, finding the transformer doesn't necessarily mean throwing the entire plan out the window.

"It's like last year when we found the lead dump," said Mitchell.

"It's another source of contamination that wasn't known before. It's another ingredient in the witch's brew. It will have to be dealt with," he said.

He said the find meant a re-evaluation of project priorities, but he couldn't say whether or not it would extend the duration of the work.

"It's up in the air until we dig the whole thing up. It all depends on what we find."