August 29, 2006

Environment

N.S. tar ponds a classic brownfield

KORKY KOROLUK

correspondent

SYDNEY, N.S.

The tender for cleaning up a cooling pond adjacent to the Sydney Tar Ponds will be reissued to address concerns a review panel expressed over aspects of the technology to be used in the cleanup.

As a result, although the cooling pond is not part of the greater cleanup, its cleanup will serve as a pilot project to assess the solidification and stabilization (S/S) technology that will be used in the tar ponds.

The process has gained wide acceptance in brownfield restoration. It uses hardening agents such as cement powder to increase the bearing capacity of contaminated sediments and chemically locks contaminants in place.

Parker Donham, spokesman for the Sydney Tar Ponds Agency, said the re-tendering means the work will be done during the next construction season, instead of this year, as originally planned.

The delay won’t affect the schedule for the over-all tar ponds project because the cooling pond is one of four “preliminary preventative works.”

The cooling pond is adjacent to where the Sydney Steel Mill once stood and about 100 metres from the tar ponds. It’s a large in-ground tank where process water from the rolling operation was dumped to cool before being reused.

Donham said it contains about 1½ metres of water on top of about the same depth of “gelatinous, sludgy material,” which contains lubricating oils, mill scale and bits of metal emanating from the rolling process.

An independent panel reviewing the tar ponds cleanup plans expressed some concerns about the S/S technology, airborne emissions during the S/S process, and appropriate control measures.

It urged a pilot project.

“We thought it would be a good opportunity for us, since there has never been a S/S project undertaken in Cape Breton,” Donham said. “We felt it would be a good shake-down cruise for us to gain some experience, and even for the community to learn something about the S/S process.”

That’s why the new tender documents will reflect the concerns of the review panel.

The cooling pond is an Aboriginal set-aside project, and only companies or consortia with majority Aboriginal ownership and control will be eligible to bid.

The same condition applied to the first tender.

There are five Mi’kmaw First Nations communities in Cape Breton, one within the boundaries of the former city of Sydney, which now is part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.

Donham said when the first tender was issued last April, “a dozen or so companies or consortia took out tender documents and four submitted bids.

“We were quite comfortable with that. That’s actually a pretty good turn-out for us.”

The new tender will be called sometime during the winter, Donham said.

The cleanup of the tar ponds and a nearby coke oven site is expected to take 10 years and cost $400 million, and won’t get under way until next season.

Donham said the agency hopes to be able to announce the winner of the design, engineering and construction oversight contract next month.

“That is the largest contract we’ll have on the whole tar ponds cleanup,” he said, adding that the construction component will be divided into “relatively small packages to encourage local companies to participate.”

The precise plan of action, and a schedule for carrying it out, can’t be completed until sometime in the winter, after the federal and provincial government response to the review panel’s report is issued.

That is expected in December, “which is in plenty of time for us to get the main project under way next summer.”

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