Clean Production and Toxics

PCB contamination the last hurdle before clean up is complete

After cleaning up an industrial plant and upgrading a paper mill’s wastewater treatment system, cleaning up contaminated sediments is all that remains in the remediation of the Penninsula Harbour toxic hotspot.

Mercury and PCB-contaminated sediments stretch 3 kilometres from Marathon out to Lake Superior at a depth of 2 to 36 metres below the water surface.

Cleaning up the hotspot has not been without controversy. In a draft plan released in 1999, government agencies recommended that the sediments not be touched but left to gradually cover over with fresh sediment. This was predicted to result in contaminated sediments drifting out into Lake Superior for at least 200 years, which was contrary to the zero discharge goals that the governments set for Lake Superior in 1991. It also meant that use of the area would be restricted, preventing, for example, the development of a marina at Marathon. As a result, the draft remedial action plan was not adopted. Since then, eight years have passed and a plan still has not been adopted. Studies of the sediments continue to show very high levels of mercury and PCBs in significant quantities of the sediment.

In April 2008, Environment Canada announced that they would give $250,000 to EcoSuperior, a not-for-profit organization based in Thunder Bay, to help develop a strategy to address the sediments. EcoSuperior will conduct public consultations to help in developing strategies, and contract experts to complete geotechnical investigations and begin detailed engineering designs.

The reaction to this news has been mixed in the community. Some look forward to actions being taken that will at long last make it possible to address the sediments in this toxic hotspot. But others fear that Marathon Paper will be required to pay the substantial costs involved in the cleanup, which could threaten the economic viability of the mill, resulting in loss of jobs at this major employer.

Determining who will provide clean-up costs is always a difficult task and frequently delays or stalls remedial action. This issue becomes even more grave in small communities such as Marathon, which are so heavily dependent on one industry for their economic viability. That is why it is essential that there be open community discussions about the need for and impacts of clean-up and full exploration of the options. Let’s hope that the planned discussions lead quickly to conclusions about what to do with the sediments since this issue has been sitting there much too long already – with toxic contamination seeping out into the environment every day.

© 2008 Great Lakes News.