Contaminated soil will be tracked in pilot project

An estimated two million tonnes of contaminated soil is trucked from Quebec construction sites annually, but the province’s environment department has no idea how much of it ends up decontaminated or buried in accredited sites.

On Monday, responding to reports that criminal gangs have infiltrated the industry and are illegally dumping contaminated soil, Quebec Environment Minister Isabelle Melançon announced a pilot project she described as a first step toward solving the problem.

All companies that work on an upcoming City of Montreal project will be required to use software that allows authorities to track contaminated soil from pickup at the construction site to drop-off at sites accredited by the province.

La Presse reported that police suspected an organized crime group has been picking up contaminated soil from construction projects. Instead of decontaminating the soil or disposing of it legally, the culprits are allegedly dumping it illegally — in farmers’ fields or others sites not approved by Quebec’s environment department.

Melançon confirmed the department is investigating at least two cases of alleged illegal dumping. In one, contaminated soil was disposed of near the Rivière de l’Achigan in Ste- Sophie in the Laurentians; in the other, the soil was hauled to an undisclosed location in Ontario, she said.

“I found these stories very worrying and shocking,” she said.

The pilot project — a joint effort with the City of Montreal — will test a system, Traces Québec, that uses GPS and other technologies to track contaminated soil.

The test case: a city plan to turn a former municipal yard in Outremont into a 1.7-hectare park. Work is to start in the fall. All bidders on the project will have to agree to use the Traces Québec system.

Using the system, an official cargo document is created that includes the soil’s origin and destination and its level of contamination. Trucks are equipped with GPS chips that allow officials to trace the route from pickup to drop-off.

Mayor Valérie Plante said the pilot project is “a concrete response to a concrete problem.”

She said she wants to protect construction workers and residents by ensuring contaminated soil is disposed of properly. The city also wants to make sure the money it spends on decontamination is going to companies that dispose of soil safely and legally.

“Municipalities have to be very vigilant about any types of possible corruption,” she said. “We know there are cracks in the system and some people have decided to use them and it’s not acceptable.”

Plante said Montreal will study the results of the pilot project before deciding whether to make the system mandatory.

The Traces Québec system was developed by Réseau Environnement, a non-profit group that represents 2,700 environmental experts.

Pierre Lacroix, president of the group, said some scofflaws dispose of contaminated soil illegally at a low cost by producing false documents and colluding with other companies to circumvent laws.

He said the Traces Québec system was tested on a few construction sites to ensure it is robust and can’t be circumvented.

“We will have the truck’s licence plate number, there will be GPS tracking, trucks will be weighed,” Lacroix said.

“If the truck, for example, doesn’t take the agreed-upon route, the software will send an alert and we’ll be able to say, ‘Why did you drive that extra kilometre and why did it take you an extra 15 minutes to reach your destination?’ ”

Organized crime can be creative in finding new ways to avoid detection and Lacroix admitted “no system is perfect.”

But, he noted, “Technology today can help take big, big, big steps” toward thwarting criminals.