Derek Neary
Northern News Services
Monday, April 02, 2007
IQALUIT - After nine years and $65 million in clean-up costs, the volume of contaminants at Resolution Island has been vastly reduced, but not eliminated.
Fact File
The Qikiqtaaluk Corporation, the clean-up contractor for Resolution Island, was paid approximately three-quarters of the $65 million in project expenditures for its services.
Approximately 75 people, the majority of whom were Inuit, were employed on the project for three to four months each summer from 1997 to 2005.
Volumes of contaminants from Resolution Island: more than 20,000 cubic metres of contaminated soil (most placed in a landfill onsite), more than 100,000 litres of waste fuel and oil incinerated onsite, more than 6,000 cubic metres of debris (more than 4,000 barrels), more than 175,000 kilograms of hazardous waste shipped south.
There are 22 other contaminated sites in Nunavut in need of remediation, most of which are expected to require two to three years of clean up. A program to address them all is expected to run over 20 years.
Clean up of the following sites began last summer and is expected to conclude this summer: Fox C (between Qikiqtarjuaq and Clyde River), Cam F (about 100 kilometres west of Hall Beach) and Radio Island (off the coast of Resolution Island)
Work will also begin at these sites this summer: Cape Christian (15 kilometres east Clyde River), Robert's Bay (a silver mine 100 kilometres south of Cambridge Bay) and Cam D (between Gjoa Haven and Kugaaruk)
|
Low levels of highly-toxic PCBs remain inaccessible to clean-up machinery due to terrain such as high cliffs, said Lou Spagnuolo, project manager of the Resolution Island clean-up and director of the contaminated sites program for the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.
"It's actually in the soil," Spagnuolo said of the remaining chemicals. "There was no concern with PCBs back in the '50s when the site was in operation, so a lot of times PCBs were just disposed of on the ground."
The federal department has committed to 25 years of ongoing monitoring of Resolution Island, including soil, water and plant sampling, beginning this summer. It will involve annual analyses for the first five years, then will shift to every second year for the next five years and finally to every three years over the final stage.
The area, which lies 310 kilometres southeast of Iqaluit, was used by the military following the Second World War to intercept signals and transmit them to bases in the south. Although considered a Pole Vault site rather than the more commonly known DEW Line sites, Spagnuolo said much of the same infrastructure existed there.
The bulk of the contaminants were shipped to an incineration plant in Quebec, said Spagnuolo. All that remains is "minimal" levels of contaminants and the shells of 11 buildings, which are the responsibility of the Government of Nunavut, he said.
A final consultation session for Iqaluit on the Resolution Island clean up didn't attract any members of the public on Wednesday.
Iqaluit Mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik said she thinks the clean-up was a great project. She was employed at the site for several seasons and said she "saw first-hand changes from when I started going." For example, numerous barrels of toxic liquids were removed and wildlife, such as birds, started to return, she said.
A public meeting on the topic was also scheduled in Kimmirut on Friday.
Features
