NUNAVUT
Durban and Padloping Islands are set for cleanup work this summer.
Biogenie, a subsidiary of EnGlobe, was awarded the $13.7 million remediation contract of both the FOX-E DEW line site on Durban Island as well as the abandoned weather station on Padloping Island. The Quebec-based company will spend two summers cleaning up the sites, located close to 75 km southeast of Qikiqtarjuaq.
The intermediate DEW line site built on Durban Island in 1957 was abandoned in 1963. Padloping Island was home to a United States Air Force weather station, operational between 1943 and the end of the Second World War. Inuit settlement on the island predates the weather station. The remains of a hamlet, abandoned in the early 1960s, are also located on the island.
Guillaume Robert, project manager at Biogenie, said both sites are challenging.
"Padloping being a site where there is not a lot of granular material and it's really not well drained. So the access road will be the main challenge. There is a lot of debris there," he said. "As opposed to FOX-E, where the site is really rugged. The road is pretty steep to access the upper site. I am looking forward to that work."
Remediation work will include removing all the debris, demolishing the remaining buildings, cleaning barrels from the site as well as dealing with contaminated soil, he added. Some of the soil will be treated on site while the soil that can't be treated will be taken off site for disposal, explained Robert.
Robert said the company expects to have up to 35 workers in FOX-E and around 20 at Padloping Island, most of which will come from Qikiqtarjuaq.
