With the cleanup of once contaminated sites either completed or underway in Port Granby and Port Hope, the Port Hope Area Initiative is an environmental project that we can all be proud of.
As we mark Earth Week with several activities across CNL sites, I want to highlight a few of the accomplishments towards creating a cleaner tomorrow in Southern Ontario.
- Over 1.8 million tonnes of waste have been moved to safe, long-term storage at the Port Hope Long-Term Waste Management Facility
- The cap and closure of the Port Granby storage mound means that 1,300,000 tonnes of waste are now in safe storage and removed from the lake front that was being eroded due to natural shoreline movement.
- Ongoing environmental monitoring to ensure that we are minimizing impacts to the environment during PHAI work, and to ensure that people and the environment remain safe, continues to be a top priority.
Our vision of project excellence includes meaningful action toward Truth and Reconciliation. This journey includes continuing to strengthen relationships with Indigenous communities, supporting their participation and the incorporation of Indigenous Knowledge Systems into project planning and restoration of the land, and respecting Aboriginal and Treaty Rights of the Williams Treaties First Nations.
With the Port Granby Project now in Phase 3 – long-term monitoring, and maintenance of the site, CNL will maintain the same high standards for safety and security that we have in the past. We will ensure that the storage mound is working as designed and that the waste is safely isolated from the environment for hundreds of years into the future.
CNL will continue environmental monitoring of air, groundwater, and soil to determine any impacts across all project sites. The storage mound in Port Granby in particular, will continue to divert clean water such as rain and snow from the top of the mound through a series of drainage pipes. Additionally, any water from inside the mound is being pumped to the dedicated wastewater treatment plant for processing before effluent (meeting all discharge criteria) is released to Lake Ontario. Restoration of the sites is now complete with more than 20,000 trees planted at the north and south areas combined.
As a community-requested solution to a longstanding environmental problem, the PHAI has been supported with ongoing, timely and accurate communication about project activities. We are proud to provide a viable solution to an issue of managing historic and legacy waste that can be copied elsewhere nationally and internationally.
As leaders in environmental restoration, being supportive stewards of the land is one of our project cornerstones, a job we do not take lightly and are pleased to do daily.
Scott Cameron
