Contaminated site management questioned

Nova Scotians want assurance that contaminated sites across the province are managed properly so as not to pose a health threat, a Progressive Conservative MLA told a public accounts committee Wednesday.

“The perennial, pre-eminent question before us here at this committee through the report of the auditor general is the question of is the province appropriately managing contaminated sites,” said Tim Halman.

“Obviously, we know Nova Scotians want that assurance.”

The auditor general's report from July 2020 certainly did not provide that assurance and it's unclear that the committee meeting did, either.

Then acting auditor general Terry Spicer reported in July 2020 that the province doesn't have a good grasp on assessing, managing and monitoring contaminated sites despite risks posed to human health and the environment.

Spicer reported that while multiple departments have different responsibilities in relation to contaminated sites, a co-ordinated approach of how to deal with the sites was lacking.

Paul Lafleche, deputy minister of the provincial departments of Lands and Forestry and Transportation and Active Transit, said at the committee Wednesday the AG'S recommendation for an oversight body to implement a consistent, co-ordinated approach for assessing and managing known contaminated sites has been addressed by establishing an interdepartmental advisory group.

Lafleche is chairman of the deputy minister committee that is accountable to the premier and cabinet, a committee that approves direction and provides oversight for the advisory group's work.

The advisory group membership includes senior officials from Lands and Forestry, Agriculture, Inclusive Economic Growth, Energy and Mines, Nova Scotia Lands and the Nova Scotia Health Authority.

Apparently unconvinced that the advisory group inspires the confidence Nova Scotians seek, Halman said, “there are definitely a lot of moving parts to this.”

The auditor general identified those moving parts nearly two years ago in an audit that focused on Lands and Forestry and Transportation, the departments the auditor said administers most of the provincially owned contaminated sites.

“Each department had different processes to identify sites, not all potentially contaminated sites were tracked, and historical information was not readily available,” Spicer's statement said at the time.

Spicer said ongoing monitoring and tracking of sites are important to ensure management has appropriate information to make resourcing decisions, and to assess potential risks arising from future activities on the site.

“We also found that the province does not have a process to prioritize site evaluations and remediation,” the AG stated. “Provincial resources, both funding and staff time, are limited; therefore, prioritizing the use of provincial resources is essential.”

As of March 31, 2019, the province recorded a $372.1-million liability for contaminated sites and was responsible for tracking 127 sites, the auditor found.

Connie Roney, manager of environmental services for the province, said Wednesday each department has legal responsibility for managing contaminated sites and the advisory group has been established to share best practices and ideas about managing sites.

“Every year, departments prepare a list of contaminated sites, they go to the finance and treasury board and the additional work of the advisory committee is to provide a consistent approach to developing lists and then to work toward a consistent approach to assuring that the guidelines in the treasury board manual are being consistently applied in developing estimates for those contaminated site liabilities.”

The auditor general found in 2020 that one in four recommendations from a 2010 audit had not been completed. He added four more recommendations in 2020 and Lafleche said the oversight recommendation and two others have been met.

Roney said another recommendation, to complete an inventory of known and potentially contaminated sites the province is responsible for, falls under the purview of each individual department.

Lafleche said the third AG recommendation that suggests the province implement a risk-based approach to assess and prioritize all known and contaminated sites falls to the shared expertise of the advisory group to “address compliance under the contaminated sites regulations.”

Stephen Macisaac is president and CEO of Nova Scotia Lands, the Crown corporation that assists provincial departments for engineering and construction of large-scale industrial remediation.

Macisaac said the corporation is currently active in three major locations, with the operation, remediation and redevelopment of the Sydney Steel plant site, the remediation and redevelopment of the former Bowater Mersey Paper site in Liverpool and the former DSME Trenton site.

He said the corporation is also involved in long-term monitoring and maintenance of former industrial sites.

“In addition to our own sites, Nova Scotia Lands have become involved over the years in providing these same services to several other government departments,” Macisaac said. “We currently manage the Boat Harbour remediation project on behalf of Nova Scotia Transportation and the Montague Mines and Goldenville mine site tailings closures in HRM and Guysborough County for Nova Scotia Lands and Forestry.

Macisaac said the $290-million Boat Harbour remediation is well underway and is currently at a federal assessment process, the Montague and Goldenville mines projects are still at the planning stage and the former abandoned mine site assessment project is in the prioritization and assessment stage.