Finally it's time for the tar ponds
The remediation of the Sydney tar ponds has passed more signposts
than a tourist lost on a California freeway so it's hard to raise
interest in yet another announcement about a new junction in the
very long road. However, news last week that Sydney Tar Ponds Agency
has called tenders for the solidification and stabilization of the
ponds does deserve public notice.
For many who've watched the
cleanup saga fitfully for a decade and a half - or longer, depending
on where one sets the starting point - the remediation of the tar
ponds is the centrepiece of the whole exercise. Though physical site
work on the Muggah Creek watershed has been underway now for several
years, and millions of dollars have already been spend, in many
minds the cleanup won't really be underway until the ponds are
tackled.
It's expected that contracts on this phase of the project,
worth about $50 million, will be awarded in six months. Potential
contractors worldwide were alerted in October. This next phase of
the $400 million cleanup will include water diversion around the
construction site, full-scale solidification and stabilization,
capping of the hardened mass, and construction of a new bridge on
Ferry Street.
Before any of that happens, results from pilot-scale
testing done in the fall at several isolated sites within the tar
ponds must be reviewed and approved by the Nova Scotia Department of
Environment. The field testing followed lab or bench-scale work
which narrowed 16 possible recipes to six.
Finding the right mixture
of cement, slag and fly ash, which may vary according to sediment
composition from one part of the ponds to another, is critical to
the long-term success of the cleanup and in determining what uses
can be made of the area once capping is completed. Critics have
questioned whether solidification and stabilization (known by the
abbreviation S/S) is even possible at this site and whether the
stability of the solidified mass - sealing in contaminants, some of
which are carcinogenic - can be assured for the long term. Experts
employed on the project say they're confident this will work, though
the OK for full-scale S/S must come from the provincial environment
department.
This is where things get confusing without a scorecard
because one provincial department, Murray Scott's Department of
Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, is responsible for the
operating agency, STPA, while Mark Parent's environment department
is the lead regulator of the cleanup. This departmental
neighbourliness, along with questions about whether Parent's
environment department was really up to the complex task of judging
cleanup methodologies, accounts for creation of an additional
three-member monitoring board which will report independently to the
minister on how well his people are carrying out their regulatory
oversight of the remediation. This watchdog's annual report will be
publicly available.
Earlier this year an operational audit, which
confirmed concerns about lost focus and slipping timelines, led to
the replacement of STPA's executive director. Trouble at the
operational agency end doesn't mean there'll be problems on the
regulatory side too, though the province continues to labour under a
reputation, going back many years, for weak environmental oversight.
With one provincial department already caught taking its eye off the
ball, the pressure clearly on both of them now to perform through
this critical stage of the Sydney cleanup.
|