Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 26/02) - Mayor Gord Van Tighem is vowing that the city will continue to fight to install a boat launch on the Giant Mine site.

The arsenic remediation committee report suggests that land around the water be remediated to a level of 220 parts per million of arsenic, while underwater sediment near the shoreline would need to be 150 ppm.

A 1995 study by Royal Oak Mines found arsenic levels over 3,000 parts per million in the proposed boat launch area.

But those numbers mean little until the city has received a firm pledge from the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development that it will bring the soil to levels acceptable for the boat launch. In the past, DIAND has said publicly it would bring the site up to industrial standards -- 340 parts per million, according to the report -- and no lower.

That could leave the city shouldering a hefty cost to clean up the site.

But Van Tighem, a strong supporter of the boat launch, said he won't go down without a fight. DIAND pledged to bring the land to a level usable for municipal purposes, he said.

"If that includes recreation, then we've got some debate with DIAND if they only want to go industrial," he said.

Coun. Kevin O'Reilly said he doubts any cleanup will take place.

"I don't think we've received sufficient assurance that it will ever get cleaned up," he said.

Other councillors are trumpeting the report as evidence that the mines didn't poison Yellowknife soil, after all. Dave Ramsay said the report means a "thumbs up" on the boat launch.

He referred to one finding in the report, which stated that naturally occurring levels of arsenic have been found as high as 1,500 parts per million.

"There's no correlation between Yellowknife having two gold mines and arsenic being high," he said.

"The mines didn't contaminate the soil, so to speak. It alleviates a lot of concern for me."

However, the report suggested the baseline level of arsenic in Yellowknife soil is around 150 parts per million.