SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Nearly 20 members of the public got a chance to raise issues they had with the environmental assessment of the federal government's Giant Mine Remediation Plan at an informal scoping session Tuesday at the Tree of Peace.

This comes just over one month before the environmental assessment goes in front of a public hearing from July 22 to 23.

An estimated 237,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide lies beneath the Giant Mine site, with fairly widespread surface contamination.

Bill Mitchell, remediation project manager, made a 30-minute presentation on the clean-up plan. It includes freezing 15 underground chambers storing arsenic trioxide dust by drilling holes underneath and sending coolant in to freeze them. Some of the chambers are larger than the 11-storey Precambrian building downtown.

The Giant Mine Remediation Plan was referred by the City of Yellowknife in late March to undergo an environmental assessment, citing public concern over the potential for environmental impacts associated with the cleanup.

The cleanup will cost an estimated $350 million.

"The purpose of the scoping is to try to understand what the issues with the assessment are for the public," said Tawanis Testart, environmental assessment officer with the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board (MVEIRB).

Questions raised during the session ranged from the area limitations of the environmental assessment to the responsible government agencies associated with the project.

Kevin O'Reilly wanted to know which GNWT departments were going to be involved in the assessment, and how.

"Is there a process by which government agencies actually identified themselves?" he asked.

Testart said the GNWT and the federal government were "co-proponents," or partners in developing the assessment, as the site lies on commissioner's land administered by the department of Municipal and Community Affairs. It was not yet known which GNWT departments, or which lead ministers, would be involved.

Louie Azzolini was interested in how the federal government developed the boundaries of their reclamation.

"The work plan identifies the geographic scope as being the existing mine lease," he said. "There is a sense that the scope of the effects may require remediation and reclamation outside of the lease."