Contaminated dumps could be beneath 100s of Montreal homes and parks

There could be as many as62 former garbage dumps on the Island of Montrealthat are nowburied beneath parks and residential lots, a CBC/Radio-Canada investigation has shown.

A list of these old dumping grounds, dated1994, was obtained throughan access-to-information request tothe City of Montreal.

According to that list, of the 62 locations, 24 are certified former landfills and 38 are possiblelandfills and dumps.

Slightly more than half of them are located in areas that are now zoned residential. Twentyformer dumps are located onpublic land, and some are beneath municipalparks.

Explore the map below to see more details of Montreal's former landfills and dump sites.

On a mobile device? Tap here for the map.

'A bombshell,' says developer

The former Villeray landfill now has hundreds of homes built on top ofit. The old De Lorimier quarry near Rosemont Park is another former dump where13 apartment buildings now stand.

"This is a bombshell," said Angelo Renda, an engineer and vice-president of Axnor Developments, a property development firm.

"This kind of data is available but hidden from the public, so residences were built on top, but property owners don't have the information."

City says it didn't know of list's existence

After Radio-Canada's initial reporton the old dumps, Montreal's current administration said it never knew about the list,and it has promisedto publish updated information.

"We will produce a map with the quarries that became dump sites. It will be on our website," said Ral Mnard, the Montrealexecutive committee member responsible for the environment.

Condo project axed, property seized

Renda was personally affected by this hidden information.

He bought a property that he did not know was built on an old landfill.

A study he read before making the purchase showed the soil on the property was clean. But when he wanted to tear down the house to build condominiums,he was told to test for contamination.

It turned out the property was contaminated to a depth of 10 metres.

That's when he learned the land's true history.

Renda's financial backerwon't pay for the decontamination, and the house has been seized.

"I feel cheated and robbed,because we paid good money for this house," Rendasaid.

"The city polluted it because they had the incinerator, they had their own landfill here. They should pay for everybody."

Montreal officials have now said they'll conducttests on the contaminated sites to see if they represent any hazard.

What the citywon't commit it to isproviding financial help to owners whose homes werebuilt on old dumpsto help them decontaminate their property.