6,000 tonnes of PCB soil unearthed at Woodward sewage plant site
Official says not a health risk for residents, but will impact schedule
The city is working with the province to deal with 6,000 tonnes of soil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) on the construction site of the Woodward Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The discovery of the hazardous material has set back the schedule of the roughly $380million upgrade that’s meant to improve the health of Hamilton Harbour through more effective treatment technology.
“There is no cause for alarm,” city water director Andrew Grice wrote in an email to The Spectator after updating councillors on the massive sewage plant project Wednesday.
“The material has been identified and is stored on-site while we test for PCB levels. The material will then be disposed of properly,” he said. “This is purely a schedule impact and not a health risk for our residents.”
A staff report before councillors noted the “significant” amount of hazardous dirt was found in the “vicinity of the new chlorine contact tank area.”
The cost of the mess — including its removal and transport to a landfill certified to handle PCBs outside of the city — is still to be determined.
The Ministry of the Environment says the source of the contamination is an old landfill site that was closed in the 1970s before current hazardous waste laws came into effect.
Ministry spokesperson Jennifer Hall didn’t provide more details of the landfill, but wrote in her email to The Spectator that the city has “delineated the extent of the contamination.”
Hall also noted there’s “no indication” PCBs left the former landfill site.
But Lynda Lukasik, executive director of Environment Hamilton, wants more information.
“I feel like we need to get a better understanding of the history of this one; how that stuff came to be there.”
Moreover, Lukasik added, it’s important to have “assurances that everybody is really confident” that the PCBs didn’t end up in the aquatic environment.
The area has “pockets” of old dumping grounds, including the former municipal landfills at Rennie and Brampton streets near the Woodward site and bottom of Red Hill Creek.
Lukasik also noted the discovery four years ago of PCBs leaching from properties on Barton Street East and Strathearne Avenue North into pipes that empty into the harbour.
The ministry says the city asked the province to transport 6,000 tonnes of dirt that was most heavily polluted to an approved waste management facility.
“It is likely it will leave city but the contractor has not identified the preferred location yet,” Grice said.
The ministry said the city plans to use “lightly contaminated” soil as berms at the Woodward site. Dirt with PCB levels less 50 parts per million are to be dealt on-site “in a manner that protects human health and the environment,” such as capping, Hall said.
The city report noted municipal and ministry staff have drawn up “comprehensive segregation and sampling plans” to separate PCB “hazardous” and “nonhazardous” soils.
The hope was for construction to reach “substantial completion” in December 2021, but the PCB discovery could push that date back, the report noted.
During Wednesday’s public works meeting, Grice called the big Woodward project a “major step” toward improving the health of Hamilton Harbour.
Key is a $165-million tertiary treatment upgrade that uses disc-filtration technology. Aeration tanks are to double in size. Two new clarifiers and a chlorine contact tank will be built. Coun. John-Paul Danko called the massive effort — which also includes pumping station, electrical and chlorination upgrades — “incredibly complex” and important.