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Fuel cleanup at Resolution airport Paul Bickford Northern News Services Published Monday, October 3, 2011
The method could mean a new way to deal with some spills in the NWT. The soil is excavated, a chemical product is applied that basically removes the hydrocarbon contamination, and the soil is returned to the site, explained Guy Aerts, an environmental analyst specializing in remediation with the GNWT's Department of Transportation. "It breaks it at the molecular level. When you're through with the additives inside, it produces a better soil, a greener soil capable of sustaining anaerobic and aerobic bacteria," Aerts said. "So basically what we're left with is at the end is well-fertilized soil that will grow items and no hydrocarbon contamination." The project on the small-scale spill began in mid-August and is expected to be finished in mid-October. Rhonda Batchelor, a senior environmental affairs analyst with the Department of Transportation, said the pilot project is encouraging, although more information has to be gathered and analyzed. "If it turns out to be as successful elsewhere as it has been here, then this is a big deal for us," she said. However, the Fort Resolution Airport spill was an old spill, she noted. "We don't know how effective it would be on a brand-new spill." There were 2,400 cubic metres of soil treated at the site. Earl Blacklock, the Department of Transportation's manager of public affairs and communications, said the Department of Public Works and Services also had a pilot project using chemical breakdown in Tuktoyaktuk, but that was on a much smaller spill and over permafrost. "We're getting really good results from this one," he added of the Fort Resolution project. "It just gives us one more tool in our toolbox." Chemical remediation can be done faster and less expensively than land farming, which can be a multi-year process and more appropriate for large-scale spills. Blacklock could offer no estimate of the cost of the work, noting it will take time to determine. Batchelor said the Fort Resolution spill was mainly where there had been an old above-ground fuel tank. The fuel had penetrated as deep as four metres into the earth in some areas. "When they were excavating, there was no water sitting at the bottom of the excavation. So it didn't impact groundwater," Batchelor said. Aerts said spilled fuel was found in two locations, but not on the runway. A small spill was treated next to the terminal building, but the majority of the fuel was where the above-ground storage tank had stood. During excavation, an old diesel fuel pipeline, which runs underneath Fort Resolution, was also discovered. "There's nothing to indicate it was the source of the contamination, but it may have contributed to it because, of course, it wasn't in very good shape," Batchelor said of the pipeline. Chief Louis Balsillie of Deninu Ku'e First Nation (DKFN) said it appears the remediation process is working, but he is frustrated there has not been more economic benefit for the community. The project is being led by the Department of Transportation, which hired a company called Oxytek to do the work and that firm hired contractors mainly from Hay River and a couple from Fort Resolution. Balsillie said DKFN is involved only to plant seeds and rake up the area after the remediation is complete. The chief would have also liked the project to continue into the community to clean up fuel from the old pipeline. "Who's going to clean up the other areas right back into the community?" he wondered. Batchelor said the old pipeline has nothing to do with the Department of Transportation, other than it's partly underneath the airport property.
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