Phase 2 contract for Randle Reef cleanup has been awarded: Environment Minister
The cleanup is scheduled to be completed by 2022
Canada's environment minister Catherine McKenna says one day, she hopes she'll bring her three kids for a swim in Hamilton Harbour.
That day won't be today.
But the federal government has taken another step in cleaning up the water. On Friday, McKenna announced it's awarded the contract for the second phase of the cleanup of Randle Reef, the most contaminated coal tar sediment on this side of the Great Lakes.
Two companies — Milestone Environmental Contracting Inc. and Fraser River Pile and Dredge Inc. — were chosen among four bidders for the $32.9 million contract.
Right now, crews are building a large steel container around much of the 695,000 cub metres of sediment contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and other toxic chemicals. This next phase, which will start in 2018 and finish in January 2020, involves sucking up the sediment outside it like a vacuum cleaner and depositing it inside.
It's a major step for a project so long in the making that McKenna, a Hamilton native, got tearful just talking about it.
"It means one day, I will bring my three kids and we will all go swimming in the Hamilton Harbour," she told the audience.
"This is a remarkably stunning place, and I'm even more proud to call it home when we do things like this."
Today, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RandleReef?src=hash">#RandleReef</a> contains enough contaminated sediment to fill a major hockey arena three times over. Soon it will be cleaned up! <a href="https://t.co/Ae482cKExB">pic.twitter.com/Ae482cKExB</a>
—@cathmckennaRandle Reef is a mass of underwater toxic waste off the coast of Stelco. It covers about 60 hectares, or 120 football fields. The federal and provincial governments are contributing to the $139 million cleanup, as well as Hamilton, Burlington, the Hamilton Port Authority and Stelco. It should finish in 2022.
The final phase of the project will involve removing the water from the sediments in the containment area and placing an impermeable cap on the facility, sealing in the contaminants.
The spill originates from a coal gasification plant that was in the city back in the 1800s, and was compounded by years of industry pollution.
The next phase involves hydraulically dredging the sediment through an underwater pipeline, said Dave Lawrence, project manager of Public Services and Procurement Canada.
Lake Ontario's current high water levels have delayed crews installing tie rods on the current phase, Lawrence said. But they expect to catch up once water levels drop.
The steel box has a lifespan of about 200 years.
Randle Reef is named after Captain Harvey T. Randle who was a marine pilot with the Hamilton Harbour Commission and was, in 1964, stranded on the reef.
McKenna said Hamilton Harbour has "been totally transformed since I was a kid." She remembers a time when no one even walked along the water. Now, Hamilton's waterfronts are bustling with activity.
McKenna even referred back to a Liberal move in the early 1990s, when former Hamilton MP and environment minister Sheila Copps donned a wetsuit and swam in the harbour to show people it was possible.
"I do hope one day I will be able to swim out here," she said. "But I don't do wetsuits."
