The city has made its choice of how to contain the mercury and wood pulp in the north harbour.
City Council voted on a $65-million option that would build a structure to contain and cap off 390,000 cubic metres of sediment. The contamination was left behind by a former paper mill.
The structure, called a Confined Disposal Facility, would cover the material, move it up to the shoreline and cap it off. It would fill over nine hectares of the open water. Between 30-50% of the sediment would be contained in the facility and the rest would be dredged into it and capped off with 8,000 tons of clean material.
Mayor Bill Mauro needed some convincing, saying he was concerned the sediment would be left so close to the water.
“If this was a mine, and we were going to store this type of contaminated material this close to the water, I’m not sure that this would receive any approvals in today’s day and age in terms of how we deal with significant environmental issues,” Mauro said.
Thunder Bay North Harbour Working Group Co-Chair Roger Santiago reassured Council the materials they’ve chosen for the facility will be able to keep the pollution from leaking back into the harbour.
Council’s choice still needs to be approved by a Committee in charge of the cleanup, and after that the city expects it will take two years of preparation and three years of construction before the structure is finished.
