White Hills cleanup moves into Phase 2

ASecond World War torpedo net isn’t the only military refuse being removed from the White Hills area of St. John’s. As part of its ongoing remediation of the area, the federal government completed a debris cleanup last fall and will begin Phase 2 this year. That will involve removing several compressed gas filters from a boggy area.

“They are more than likely empty, but we want to remove them properly,” said Glen Hynes of Public Works and Services Canada.

The U.S. military dumped a lot of materials in the White Hills from the base it operated below at Fort Pepperrell from 1941 to 1961.

The Telegram ran a number of articles about the debris in September and October 2010.

Part of the area is included in the federal contaminated sites action plan and work to clean it up had begun in 2001.

Various environmental assessments were done leading up to last year’s cleanup.

“From that site, we removed 25.7 tonnes of scrap metal for recycling,” Hynes noted.

The price tag on the 2011 work was a little more than $11,000.

The gas cylinders being removed this year likely contained acetylene, which is used for welding.

Hynes pointed out the debris presents “no imminent risk to human health or the environment.”

He said his department gave the Grand Concourse Authority permission to remove the torpedo net.