The region wants to get rid of any unexploded military devices on Lakeshore Road and is asking the federal government for help.
At a recent regional public works meeting, the committee discussed remediating a site in Niagara-on-the-Lake that may contain “unexploded explosive ordnance” from the property’s military past that did not detonate or function as intended.
An existing wastewater treatment plant with lagoons on Lakeshore Road that reached the end of its service life has been replaced by a new treatment plant located about 800 metres west of that property. In early 2020, the new treatment plant opened, with all treated sewage directed to Lake Ontario.
Since then, the closed plant and lagoons have been scheduled for decommissioning and site restoration.
The area of the aeration ponds was once part of a rifle range that was used before construction of the new ponds in the 1990s, says the report.
An area of about 23.1 hectares was transferred from Parks Canada and the Department of National Defence to build the two existing lagoons in 1965. This piece of land is currently in the hands of the region, says the report approved Tuesday morning by the public works committee.
An additional 3.7 hectares of land west of that property was leased from Parks Canada to facilitate construction of the existing mechanical and chemical facilities, including aeration lagoons, also in the mid-1990s.
Together, two parcels — the old treatment plant and the DND property, formerly a rifle range, on its eastern border, represent the area to be decommissioned. West of the new treatment plant is Niagara Shores Park, officially off-limits to the public, but used regularly.
At the regional meeting, Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa, asked if public access would be permitted on the property once the remediation work is complete.
His question was fielded by Frank Tassone, who was serving as acting commissioner of public works during the meeting.
“Our anticipation is that when it does get cleaned up, the lagoons themselves will likely not be touched, so there would also be some risk involved with the lagoon areas,” Tassone said.
Niagara-on-the-Lake Regional Coun. Andrea Kaiser told The Local that the Niagara Shores Park used to be accessible years ago by the public as an open space.
“We’d all love to see this portion of the property reopened,” said Kaiser, “sooner rather than later,” adding she took part in a site visit recently with representatives from the town and Parks Canada.
“The conversation has started, which is really great,” she said, but it is unknown whether public access will ever be allowed again at the site.
She’s not sure why Niagara Shores Park become an issue, she added, and she is hoping to have those involved, including the town, see what they can do to have it reopened. But that is a totally separate issue, not part of the remediation efforts, although a group called Harmony Residents has been trying to have the park, as well as the old treatment facility property and the rifle range, open to the public.
She said the region’s plans to remediate the former sewage treatment plant property, on top of what needs to be done to clear it of unexploded military devices, are the current priorities.
“It’s not going to happen overnight,” she explained. “There’s a lot of potential and I’d say it’s kind of far down the line.”
Kaiser said she has been communicating with Harmony Residents, a local group also hoping to see some of the property return to a park form.
Finn Madsen, long-time member of the Harmony group, explains their project is intended to be long-term, with the goal of opening three of the four parcels of land to the public — beginning with Niagara Shores Park, then the closed sewage plant, and finally, at some point in the future, the former rifle range, which has the most historical significance in relation to the War of 1812.
Madsen told The Local there was a clean-up of unexploded ordnance years ago, and he isn’t sure what could still be there to be removed.
“I’m sure that property was given a clean bill,” he said. And any remediation now required with the old facility and lagoons, he believes, is the responsibility of the region to complete, and not Parks Canada.
David Hennessey, another member of the Harmony group, also claims there was a “major clean-up” at the site about 10 years ago, around the time of the new treatment plant being constructed.
He said all the different pieces of property in the area add up to more than 80 hectares of land, and that the Harmony group wants to see it return to a naturalized state, a place the public can use.
He also claims even though there is fencing and signage currently telling people to keep out of the park, it isn’t working.
“The general public is all over that place,” he said.
Before the construction of the sewage lagoons in the 1960s, the land was used by Canada’s Department of National Defence for training, beginning in 1908.
Niagara Region has several land transfer agreements, lease agreements and memorandums of understanding with the federal government for the lands, dating back to the 1980s.
According to the public works report, federal officials have assessed the risk level of the military explosives as “medium,” meaning there is a “remote possibility” of unexploded devices being present, which if not handled correctly, have “the potential to cause a catastrophic event, possibly leading to loss of life.”
The committee approved a staff recommendation to request the federal government either assume funding obligations and provide expertise to deal with the issue, and thereby allow the region to proceed with removal of infrastructure and creation of a wetland area, or alternatively, determine whether return of the lands in an “as is” state is a preferable solution, recognizing the difficulties associated with remediation and removal of infrastructure, the report says.
The region does not have the expertise to develop the scope of work or assess qualifications to retain an expert or contractor to do the work, the committee was told last week.
The report continues to say that full-scale clearance, if undertaken, will be “extremely expensive, challenging, and unpleasant,” but it did not include a dollar figure related to what estimated remediation costs may be.
Kaiser explained there are two issues with the old sewage treatment property. When the region took it over, it agreed to return it to Parks Canada in the condition it was in when the treatment plant was built.
There was absolutely no talk of unexploded ordnance at that point, and if it’s there, the region was not told about it, she said.
“It was never suggested. There was no discussion around unexploded ordnance, all this time,” she said. “It came as a surprise.”
“This work is not in our wheelhouse,” Kaiser told The Local.
The decommissioning objective has been to take the area out of service and restore it to a naturalized state. Upon completion and acceptance by Parks Canada, the land will revert back to federal ownership, says the report.
The original plan included two phases for design and construction, the first the decommissioning and removal of the wastewater treatment plant buildings and clarifiers, while the second phase involves decommissioning the lagoons and full site restoration. Through a competitive bid process, the region retained a company to begin the Phase 1 design.
The remaining design work is on hold based on the risk assessment, says the public works report.
A revised scope of work is currently being developed to remove all equipment, fixtures and other items from buildings, and process tanks onsite.
“The buildings will be emptied, sealed and abandoned in satisfaction of all applicable laws and regulations,” the report says.
The design and construction for this revised scope is scheduled for 2023 to 2024.
The region wants to get it done, said Kaiser, but can’t do anything as long as Parks Canada says there is some risk.
In a statement to The Local, Lindsey Jones, manager of capital projects for the region’s water-wastewater engineering division, said in current agreements, it is agreed that the land would be returned to Parks Canada following decommissioning of the site.
In consideration of the fact that the land will be reverted back to ownership of the federal government, should they prefer the land be remediated, “it would be necessary for the region to receive the necessary funding from them to undertake the work.”
Without funding, the region would “remediate to the site within ability and then transfer the lands ‘as is’,” which Jones said is also an option in the agreement.
There is currently $2 million available in the budget for this project, said Jones.
“It is anticipated that it would be highly unlikely that public access to the lands would be permitted in the future given the documented conditions of the lands, regardless of remediation efforts,” said Jones.
Even if a full-scale ordnance clearance were to be conducted to allow for remediation, only “areas of the site currently impacted by wastewater infrastructure” would receive clearance, still leaving portions of the site with a risk, said Jones.
The statement from Jones did not specifically address an emailed question about claims that the site has already been cleaned of unexploded ordnance, which both Kaiser and Harmony residents say has occurred, although Kaiser said she was not certain what part of the Lakeshore property — she recalls there was a clean-up of the rifle range.
Jones reiterated information contained in the report brought to public works, saying that an assessment of the area has been conducted, and that there is a “medium” risk of unexploded military devices, which could create a catastrophic event, and possibly lead to loss of life.
