Brook's realignment will be first step in cleaning up tar ponds, says engineer
By Tanya Collier Macdonald
Cape Breton Post
Fri., July 16, 2004
A realignment of Coke Ovens
Brook planned for 2005 will
stop contamination from flowing
off the toxic site, says an
engineer overseeing the conceptual
design of the planned work.
Described as the first "concrete"
step in cleaning up the
Sydney tar ponds and coke
ovens sites, the brook will now
be rerouted along two branches,
said Richard Morykot, project
engineer for the provincial
Sydney Tar Ponds Agency.
The north branch will run
from the base of Blueberry
Hill in Whitney Pier and flow
down a new channel to be dug
near Frederick Street and the
SPAR road, picking up flows
from several smaller brooks
along the way. It will cross
under the Coal Railway tracks
and the SPAR road at a point
just east of Lingan Road and
follow the rail spur through
the coke ovens site to join the
south branch at the Victoria
Road overpass.
The brook, located along
the southside of the old Sydney
landfill at the back of the
Schwartz building on Vulcan
Avenue, will be redirected to
Mullin's Bank. It will travel
along the bank until it merges
with Cagney Brook. At that
point, it will run parallel to
Victoria Road and follow the
existing channel under the
Victoria Road overpass.
"It'll circle the site verses
going through the middle,"
said Morykof.
Part of the relocated south
branch will be piped underground and portions of both
branches will be lined with
synthetic material or clay to
prevent recontamination.
A fish habitat survey was
done on Coke Ovens Brook
and no "fish of value" were
found. However, following the
realignment, it's expected that
the habitat will improve once
the brook starts rehabilitating.
Now that the conceptual
design is complete, engineers
will begin a detailed design of
the project.
In information provided,
previous studies recommend
moving the brook to an area
where it will not
pick up contaminated
groundwater as it
passes through the
coke ovens site.
Moving the brook
will also permit
more thorough cleanup
of the stream bed where
contaminants accumulated
during a century of coke
production.
The full report of the conceptual
design by the engineering firms
Dillon Consulting Ltd. and Franz
Environmental Inc., is available on the
Sydney Tar Ponds Web site.
The Sydney Tar Ponds
Agency will commission a
detailed engineering design of
the realignment and conduct
an environmental screening
before work begins next year.
Other engineering work
that continues is the construction
of a coffer dam at
Battery Point, the cleanup of
the cooling pond at the southwest
corner of the Sysco propecty
and the relocation of the
Victoria Road water main.
tcmacdonald@cbpost.com
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