Legal fight let buried pollutants leak into harbour for years
Work will begin this year to trap the buried chemicals — five years after the original order to stop PCBs from ‘migrating’ into Hamilton Harbour
Provincially ordered work to trap historical PCB pollution in the east end of the city is about to begin — but only after legal delays allowed the buried toxic chemicals to leak into Hamilton Harbour for another five years.
The Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks said “remedial” work will begin this year to prevent cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from “migrating” off three properties along Barton Street East and Strathearne Avenue, near the site of a long-closed Aerovox electrical components plant.
That pollution-prevention work — first ordered in 2016 — includes vacuuming sediment from catch basins and plugging storm sewers that could flow with PCB-laced water. The results of the work will be monitored for at least two years.
Ministry spokesperson Jennifer
Hall called the long-delayed work a “significant step” in cutting toxic pollution in the bay — a key requirement to eventually “delist” the harbour as a national Great Lakes area of concern.
But she also confirmed storms continued washing PCBs into the harbour via the sewers while the ordered work was under appeal for years at the Environmental Review Tribunal. The appeals were withdrawn this month.
The ministry said tests between 2015 and 2019 showed ongoing pollution of the harbour via combined sewers — but it won’t share details of how much PCB contamination was found in those tests or where it went without a freedom of information request to the government.
The “infuriating” delay in stopping a known source of PCBs highlights a “major problem” in how the government deals with historical pollution, especially in industrial cities, said Environment Hamilton head Lynda Lukasik.
“The idea that we could let this problem fester for years while everyone argues over who has to pay for what — that’s just a crazy way to deal with legacy pollution,” she said.
Large, historical pollution problems in the U.S. are sometimes tackled with help from the federal “Superfund” program, which — in theory — can pay for “immediate” cleanups before protracted legal liability issues are resolved, said Ramani Nadarajah, a lawyer at the Canadian Environmental Law Association.
Canada and Ontario have previously partnered to fund cleanups of industrial pollution — think the ongoing $138-million Randle Reef project in Hamilton Harbour — but the country does not have a dedicated Superfund equivalent. In Hamilton, the city has occasionally stepped in to take over smaller polluted sites.
“It’s a major weakness in our (environmental) regulatory framework,” Nadarajah said.
The public first learned about the PCB “plume” hidden under Barton Street when The Spectator reported on a draft provincial order to past and current property owners in 2015. But the ministry actually knew the pollution issue existed for decades, with area property owners shipping more than 30,000 kilograms of contaminated soil to outof-province landfills between 1996 and 2002.
Aerovox Canada, which operated between the late 1940s and 1972 on the property that now hosts the Strathbarton Mall, was fingered as the likely original polluter. It’s successor company, U.S.-based AVX Corporation, has not responded to any Spectator requests for comment, including Tuesday.
Current area landowners, including Coca Cola, Union (now Enbridge) Gas and mall owner Rosart Properties, originally called on the province to force AVX to pay for any remediation — a call supported by the city.
But AVX — which has previously paid to clean up historical PCB pollution in Massachusetts — did not comply with the provincial order. Hall said the ministry investigated in 2017, but chose not to attempt cross-border prosecution.
Rosart said in a statement Tuesday it has “taken the lead” in monitoring and studying the historical pollution in recent years despite not having created the problem. It said the company will do further catch basin cleaning and monitoring.
Neighbouring Coca Cola did not respond to questions about work required on its property, but the ministry said catch basin cleaning is also required, along with further storm sewer studies. Union Gasturned-Enbridge has already disconnected and plugged a storm sewer network on its property.
While the buried PCBs continue to pollute the harbour, the underground “plume” is not considered a hazard to nearby homes or Mahony Park. Hall said off-site well tests have showed PCB levels “below ministry standards.”
Hamilton public health also said it continues to deem the risk to humans “very low.”
Bay Area Restoration Council head Chris McLaughlin expressed hope the planned pollution-trapping work is just the beginning of a cleanup at the industrial Strathearne boat slip.
“Anything to turn off the PCB tap into the harbour is very, very good news,” he said, noting levels of the chemical in harbour fish are still high compared to samples taken elsewhere in the Great Lakes.
“This is encouraging ... but the path forward should also be clearly communicated to the public. What is the plan to finally deal with Strathearne and other remaining problems? Are there more taps to turn off?”