Final Assessment for Coke Ovens Cleanup Begins

TRANSPORTATION/PUBLIC WORKS--Final Assessment for Coke Ovens Cleanup Begins

Fieldwork for the Phase 3 environmental site assessment of the coke ovens site in Sydney will begin next week.

Major environmental cleanup projects like the coke ovens site require a step-by-step approach to assessment. This project follows the process recommended by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. Phase 3 is the last step in confirming the extent and characteristics of soil, surface-water and groundwater contamination. It will also answer any questions arising from the Phase 2 work.

The Phase 3 and associated human health and environmental risk assessment results are essential to planning and conducting the future cleanup. Similar Phase 3 fieldwork has already been completed on the nearby Sydney tar ponds, for which a summary of draft findings was made public in August.

JDAC Environment -- a consortium of the four local consulting firms: Jacques Whitford Environment Limited, Dillon Engineering, ADI Limited and CBCL Limited -- has been awarded a $1.5-million contract for the Phase 3 work at the coke ovens site. Personnel, some vehicles and testing equipment including a drilling rig will be used during the fieldwork that starts Wednesday, Oct. 10. The fieldwork will take about three weeks to complete.

"As with all other work on either the tar ponds or coke ovens site, measures are in place to ensure the health and safety of workers as well as people who live or work nearby," said Walter van Veen of Conestoga-Rovers and Associates, the management company that oversees all site-related activity. "For this fieldwork, these protective measures include monitoring air quality."

Although a final report on the Phase 2 work at the coke ovens site has not yet been issued, scientists and engineers drafting that report have already identified most of the testing required in Phase 3. Some additional work may be ordered later, depending on final recommendations in the Phase 2 report.

"We have a clear window of opportunity to get this necessary fieldwork started now," said Frank Potter, director of operations for the Sydney Tar Ponds Agency (N.S.). "We're focussed on moving this process along as quickly as possible."

Phase 3 findings for both the tar ponds and coke ovens site -- along with other data, such as results from bench-scale testing of tar ponds samples collected in mid September -- will be key to determining which cleanup options will work in Sydney, how long each would take and how much each would cost. These findings will be summarized in a report to be prepared by CBCL Limited by late 2002. The community, through the Joint Action Group, will use that report to recommend to government its preferred cleanup options.

"It's important to begin this important fieldwork before the snow flies," says Dan Fraser, Chair of the Joint Action Group. "We are anxious to see how this work will complement the Phase 2 Environmental Assessment of the Coke Ovens, but this will definitely give us a head start on the final report."

Phase 2 and Phase 3 environmental site assessment work is included in a $62-million federal-provincial-municipal agreement to fund preparatory studies and work that will lead to the awarding, in late 2004, of the final cleanup contracts.