How best to clean up Thunder Bay's polluted harbour to be decided by 2020

Federal officials say they expect to know by 2020 how to clean up a large patch of historical industrial pollution in the north harbour of Thunder Bay, Ont.

A new steering committee has been formed to examine three options for remediation presented to the public in 2014. A previous committee formed to look at those options went dormant, necessitating the refresh.

The new committee is lead by Environment Canada, Transport Canada, Ontario's environmental ministry and the Thunder Bay Port Authority. A large number of other stakeholders, including local government, Indigenous groups, including Fort William First Nation, environmental organizations and businesses and industry are also at the table.

"At this point, we want to further evaluate those [three existing] options and to look at additional options over the next 14 months," said Roger Santiago, the head of Environment and Climate Change Canada's sediment remediation group. The group primarily works on cleaning up contaminated patches in the Great Lakes.

"The ultimate goal is to pick a preferred sediment management option."

Back in 2014, three options were presented, including:

• Capping: Placing clean material on top of the contaminated material to contain and isolate the pollution. A geotextile (a strong fabric barrier) would support that cap;
• Dredging: Removing contaminated sediment underwater;
• Excavating: Using a type of dam, isolating the material from the water then removing it.

The pollution if removed from the lake would be either put into a secure landfill, in a newly-created on-site disposal facility or into an existing facility at Mission Bay. Cost estimates four years ago ranged from $30 to $100 million.

Santiago said those three options, as well as other potential ideas, will be examined very closely by the committee; that will include reviewing technical reports once they're produced, as well as a fresh round of public engagement and consultation.

That will lead to a recommended option being chosen by the end of 2019, Santiago said. The four lead organizations will then develop a plan for engineering design work and ultimately implementing the preferred option.

Jurisdiction, lead agency also to be sorted out

The committee will also be responsible for sorting out the complicated jurisdictional issues that exist with that part of the harbour. The contaminated water lots are owned by Transport Canada and managed by the Thunder Bay Port Authority. The industrial companies responsible for the legacy pollution largely no longer exist.

"It's premature at this time to determine which parties or organizations will lead the implementation of the preferred option," Santiago said, adding that a number of questions need to be sorted out.

Those include who's going to own the site where the contaminants currently sit, who's going to manage it and who's going to be responsible for monitoring and maintenance, Santiago said.

"Once all those things are established and we have a sense of local participants, their role in implementing that preferred option, then we'll be able to better scope ... forward what those next steps are."