"We didn't have a clue that could create a lot of problems"-Former Dew line worker
Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services
Paulatuk (Apr 30/01) - A former worker for the U.S. and Canadian military is happy a radar warning site near Paulatuk will be cleaned up this summer.
For 12 years James Ruben Sr. worked as a mechanic on distant early warning line sites across the North and witnessed the careless handling of fuel and paint laced with PCBs.
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"I used to bury paint and all kinds of mixed materials," he said. "They played games with me because in those years they must have thought that the Eskimo didn't understand ... I feel angry for what the Yankees and Canadians did to our country."
Ruben saw things that today seem very irrational. He helped get rid of trucks barged in to the site at Cape Parry on the tip of Parry Peninsula in the mid-60s. Four years after the U.S. military brought them in it was decided it would be too expensive to get them out, Ruben said.
"We lined them up, put them in first gear and jumped them off a cliff," he explained. "The generals came the next year and spotted the Mac trucks in the water."
Although he is not certain why, workers were told to overhaul them and dispose of them a mile further down the ice.
"Then they put them in gear and jumped out before they reached the open water," he said. "We were just told what we had to do and we did it."
Ruben said he thinks the six trucks are probably still locked there under the ice.
Lessons learned
DEW line sites were built by the U.S. airforce to detect Russian military activity. With the end of the Cold War and the evolution of technology the manned 42 radar sites on Canadian soil were no longer needed.
"We didn't have a clue that could create a lot of problems," Ruben said.
DND has invested $320 million in the clean up of 21 radar sites. The remaining 21 smaller and abandoned sites are the responsibility of DIAND and have not all been investigated for environmental contamination. The U.S. contribution to the project was a $100 million US.
"It's shameful the way we would bury tools when it changed from standard to metric," Ruben said. "I was grateful I got all my free training from them ... but thinking of that can make you feel really guilty."
Clinton Point was a medium-sized DEW line site and is expected to cost $9-million to make environmentally safe.
Clinton Point
Clinton Point, or the PIN-1 radar site, was closed in 1993. Contaminants were found leaking from two of six landfill sites and PCBs were found in samples of dry paint.
There was also evidence of spills from fuel lines and tanks. A big spill was thought to have occurred near the beach area.
Some of the landfills will be excavated and hazardous waste sorted out and removed. Non-hazardous waste will be re-buried in the permafrost.
Boards and materials covered by PCB-laden paint will be locked in metal boxes.
"A decision has to be made yet about what is going to happen to it," explained Shawn Helmerson, contracts manager for Defence Construction Canada.
He and other DEW line clean up partners spoke to residents of Paulatuk about the project at a public meeting on Apr. 23.
PCB contaminated material is very expensive to dispose of when shipped to a waste treatment facility in Swan Hills, Alta.
Under an agreement with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation over half of the workforce used to clean up the site by the fall must be Inuvialuit. The Clinton Point project should create from 50 to 100 jobs this summer for Paulatuk residents.
"I would like to see Inuvialuit from every community to do testing," Ruben said. "From what I have seen in the past, how can I trust the engineers taking the samples?"
Ruben left the meeting feeling optimistic about cleaning up the DEW line sites he worked and lived on for over a decade.
"It's a good thing," he said. "I feel positive but only after studying it closely for about 25 years to make sure there are no leaks."
