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Bags of contaminated soil sit at Cape Dyer, a former DEW Line site. More than 6,500 metric tonnes of soil contaminated with PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and heavy metals, such as mercury, have been removed from the site. - Casey Lessard/NNSL photo

CAPE DYER
"It's my land, and I didn't like how the Americans treated it, but I'm working and cleaning it up," said Gary Kunilusi of Pangnirtung, who is spending his second summer working to remediate the Cape Dyer Dye-Main Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line site. "It's good for the town, we've got jobs."

Welder Tyler Iqaalik of Qikiqtarjuaq and Ayupau Noah of Iqaluit prepare the land for a non-hazardous landfill. - Casey Lessard/NNSL photo

Kunilusi is only one of 175 people working on the Cape Dyer clean-up efforts under contracts held by Qikiqtaaluk Logistics and Qikiqtaaluk Environmental, subsidiaries of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association's development arm, Qikiqtaaluk Corporation (QC). An average of 80 people are on site at any given time in the summer, and president Harry Flaherty estimates about 85 per cent of the crew is Inuit.

He says it makes perfect sense for QC companies to clean up the mess left by the American military at former DEW Line sites.

"There's so much innovation on the part of the Inuit people of this region because when you're cleaning up, you're cleaning up your backyard," Flaherty told those joining him and Premier Eva Aariak on a site visit to Cape Dyer, one of the last DEW Line sites needing remediation.

"You can tell they're a little more passionate to do that because it's part of their life."

QC took over the cleanup efforts at Cape Dyer in June 2011, picking up where SNC-Lavalin left off after running the cleanup from 2005 to 2010. QC expects to have the site finished by fall 2013.

"It's a huge job," said Dave Eagles, Department of National Defence (DND) DEW Line cleanup project manager. "It's amazing how much was here. This was the largest site by far. Over the years, this was an operation with a lot of waste."

Defence Construction Canada (DCC), the DND's contractor, started to build the site in 1955 for the United States military. The Americans ran the site from 1957 to 1989.

"We had the honour of participating in the construction of all the DEW Line sites, but I will tell you, not the operation of them," said DCC president James Paul, "so we didn't make the mess, I can assure you."

There's a lot to clean up from the 23,288-acre site situated on the easternmost projection of Baffin Island.

From equipment containing mercury and other heavy metals, to petroleum products and battery fluid spilled on the ground, to walls covered with paints containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and lead.

In total, there were 6,500 metric tonnes of contaminated soil and demolition debris to move off-site, said Greg Johnson, Qikiqtaaluk Environmental project director.

"When they were finished with the PCBs, they were supposed to take them out and put them in fuel barrels, and from the drums they would be shipped south safely," Eagles said of the site's American operators. "But when it's -50 C, you're a southern worker, and you say 'I'm not going to put my coat on and go outside', they'd dump it down the toilet. It goes out the sewer and out onto the land, and now you have a large area of soil contaminated by PCBs. Thirty odd years of operation, that's why there's so much."

The project is one of the biggest of the DEW Line clean-up efforts, and required two years of assessment, Eagles said.

It also has its share of logistical challenges, as the five km of roads from the beach to the lower site are subject to regular spring washouts that require the first workers on site to repair the roads each spring.

It's another 20 km to the upper site at an elevation of 730 metres, where weather and radar equipment are located.

"I really appreciate the opportunity to see the magnitude of what is happening here," Aariak said.

The cleanup meets federal treaty obligations to clean up the sites, and provides economic benefits by providing jobs and training opportunities for Nunavummiut, Paul said.

The Canadian government is paying most of the costs with some contribution from the United States.

"All of the partners can take pride in the fact that we're contributing to the environmental remediation effort that's being done here in order to return the environment as close as possible to the condition it should be for the benefit of future generations," he said, noting 95 per cent of the project cost stays in Nunavut.

In the end, all buildings will be demolished, except for the upper site radar station and a hangar to allow maintenance crews to house equipment to maintain that station.

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