City waits on province to review plan for contaminated land

The city is still waiting on the Ministry of Environment to approve a draft plan to clean up contaminated lands around the Hamilton airport.

The consultant firm hired by the airport submitted the remediation plan to the ministry in November, says Guy Paparella, director of the city's industrial parks and airport development division.

But until the province approves it, the city is waiting anxiously to close the door on a long-time issue, Paparella said.

"Council is quite anxious. We're quite anxious," he said. While he had hoped to hear by the end of June, "chances are we're not going to get a response until next month, but we're hoping."

The city has grappled with the issue of contaminated lands around the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport for years.

Dating back to 1980s, the federal government used the lands as a firefighting training facility. The land, formerly owned by the federal government, is contaminated with perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS).

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The airport hired EXP Consultants to develop a plan. In December 2011, it presented an initial subsurface investigation to city council.

That plan included four recommendations, including plugging culverts as short-term mitigation, drilling additional boreholes and groundwater monitoring wells, and doing a risk assessment plan, which is with the ministry now.

That remediation plan isn't public yet because it's still only a draft, Paparella said.

"We put all the ingredients in and have it in the oven, but until it's ready, we can't share it," he said. "When (the ministry) approves it, then we'll be able to share it with everybody."

Joe Minor, a local environmentalist and biologist, wants to see it sooner than that. The consultant and province have been meeting, but the public doesn't know what happens at those meetings, he said.

"I've been asking to know what's going on with the airport for a couple of years and they won't tell me anything," he said.

With the pace the project is going, "we really haven't heard anything new with respect to PFOS at the airport for about two years now," he said.

Preliminary estimates show it will cost between $1.5 and $2.5 million to remediate the site, Paparella said. So far, the federal government has not committed any money to the project.

As soon as the province approves the plan, city staff will present it to council, said Frank Scremin, president and chief executive officer of Hamilton International Airport. The consultant and the province are in regular contact.

"This is a long-standing historical issue," Scremin said. "It happened over a long period of time. I don't expect it's going to get solved over night, although the more expeditiously we can get it solved, the better."

Coun. Brenda Johnson, who represents Ward 11, said council has "been anxious since November."

"I know it's going to be a long process," she said. "I know it's not going to be done overnight. I just want it done right."

The ministry has confirmed that it's doing a technical review of the remediation report, but isn't sure how long it will take to complete that review.