Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Fort Smith (Oct 10/05) - For years, the NWT has sent some contaminated material, such as medical waste, to Alberta for treatment or destruction.

However, a clean-up of a small power-generating site in northern Alberta has briefly reversed the flow.

Diesel-contaminated soil - about 300 dump truck loads so far - is being moved from Peace Point to Fort Smith for treatment at a so-called land farm at the community landfill.

Environment and Natural Resources minister Michael Miltenberger calls the project a coincidence of time, events and proximity, since Fort Smith has the closest treatment site.

"We're not in the bring-us-your-waste-and-contaminated-soil business," says Miltenberger, the MLA for Thebacha, adding the Peace Point reclamation project is relatively minor.

It is the first example Miltenberger knows of where contaminated material has been brought to the NWT from Alberta for treatment.

Fort Smith has a land farm because of the clean-up several years ago of a fuel spill at Aurora College.

The GNWT established the treatment site, but it is now controlled by the Town of Fort Smith.

Organic bacteria

At the land farm, contaminated soil will be spread over a large area.

Organic bacteria feeds on the hydrocarbons and the soil is watered and tilled. After a year or two, it will be free of contaminants.

The contaminated soil comes from an ATCO Electric site at Peace Point - Mikisew Cree reserve land containing about a half dozen homes.

The community, about 120 km south of Fort Smith, is surrounded by Wood Buffalo National Park.

The generating site has existed since 1983.

"Over the course of operation, there has been some diesel dropped on the ground and the odd leak," says Ray Boven, ATCO's vice-president of engineering and construction in Edmonton.

So far, about 6,000 cubic metres of contaminated soil have been removed.

"We're getting very close to being finished," Boven says of the $1.5-million clean-up, which began this summer and is expected to be finished by mid-October.

Fort Smith is the logical location to treat the soil, Boven says.

"It is the closest community that has a landfill site approved to handle soil from a diesel spill."

The Peace Point project is part of ATCO's ongoing clean-up of 79 remote generating sites in Alberta.

Money for town

Mayor Peter Martselos says there is no hazard to land or people in Fort Smith from treating the contaminated material.

"We went through it with the college and there's no problem at all," he says.

The town will make some money on the project as ATCO pays for use of the land farm.

Martselos says the final figure has not yet been determined, but it will be at least a few thousand dollars.

Mike Keizer, the communications manager with Wood Buffalo National Park, says it is pleased to see the contaminated soil removed from Peace Point. However, Keizer says the park is concerned about wear and tear on the unpaved road to Fort Smith from the increased truck traffic.

The park will inspect the road after the project is finished. ATCO's Boven says he is not aware of any damage to the road, but notes the company has made reparations as required after other such projects.