Project PCB – Year One
First leg of the Resolution Island cleanup project ends
Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services
NNSL (5 October, 1998) – Simply put, the Resolution Island Cleanup Project is a good thing.
It is also a very necessary project. Located just 310 kilometres southeast of Baffin Island, the abandoned US military base is seriously contaminated. PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl) levels, as an example, are 160-times higher (8,000 parts per million) than the legal limit. The Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) currently requires that PCB concentrations be reduced to 50 ppm.
But a department of Indian and Northern Affairs employee says the $36 million project is not just about complying with the law.
"You may ask why we are doing this in such a remote area. With PCBs, the corollary reason is to prevent further migration of these contaminants down water," says Marianne Kardash, a project officer for DIAND's contaminated sites office.
More specifically, gravity has caused the PCBs that were once contained in transformers, paint and discarded building materials to congregate in about 3,000 cubic metres of soil on the lowest part of the island. It is here that they are migrating into the marine environment, contaminating the food chain and posing a serious health risk to humans.
Kardash says that while her department has been aware of the situation for some time and first assessed the site in 1993, it wasn't until this June that a contribution agreement was signed with the Qikiqtaaluk Corporation. The agreement provides $6.9 million to execute the first year of the project.
"Two milestones along with the employee training aspect were met this year and those were primarily the road construction and the construction of the (fuel) tank farm," says Kardash.
Building the tank farm allowed DIAND to purchase enough fuel (300,000 litres) to last for the duration of the project and the improved road system will make for easier PCB remediation.
"We had a lot of roadwork. When you go from the beach to the camp, it's 10 to 12 kilometres. We had to rework the profile of the roads and make them more secure," says Gordon Hovington, QC's project manager for the site.
He adds that because of the infrastructure that was developed by the QC employees over the last three months, the actual remediation of the contaminants is set to begin next year.
It will involve cleaning up and storing the contaminated soil in 2,000 containers until a method of PCB reclamation is chosen, shredding, decontaminating and burying nearly 50,000 iron barrels and burning waste oil in special incinerators.
Hovington says the final report he finished last Friday before his contract ended makes recommendations on next year's activities in order to justify and secure the next batch of funding. One of the most important points in his report would be to use a boat to transport workers and materials to and from the island. Hovington says fog seriously hampered many of their plans this summer.