With over 130 people attending the PHAI Town Hall Style meeting on June 11, it was difficult to answer all the questions received. As we promised, we are addressing them here. We also want to remind residents that our team is available to answer questions at any time. Simply connect via [email protected], call us at 905.885.0291 or reach out on Facebook.
The team also heard the desire for additional opportunities to connect and we invite you to stay tuned as we make changes to the way we communicate.
Credibility/Accountability
You asked us about PHAI accountability and who is responsible for the delays, total project costs and timelines.
The CNL General Manager with responsibility for the PHAI remains accountable for the safe and timely delivery of the Port Hope Project. On behalf of CNL, Scott Cameron is responsible for making changes to improve the efficiency of the project within the parameters of the Legal Agreement signed by the Municipality of Port Hope and the Government of Canada, represented by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL).
The total budget to complete both the Port Granby and Port Hope Projects is $2.6 billion. To date, $1.6 billion has been committed, with the project scheduled to be complete in 2030 and the mound capped and closed by 2032.
CNL has a financial commitment from the Government of Canada to ensure the historic waste is removed from the community for long-term safe storage. There is no question that cleaning up this historic waste is costly. The original scope of work on properties has proven to be significantly larger than was anticipated. The budget was increased to address the additional scope.
Schedule
You asked us about the process for selecting houses for cleanup, as well as the expected timelines for completing all work in Port Hope. Additionally, you inquired about reasons for project delays, and specific timelines for long-delayed individual properties.
The cleanup of private properties is taking longer than originally anticipated because we have identified significantly more private properties with historic waste, through the property radiological testing program, than was forecasted before the project began.
The PHAI cleanup of privately owned properties is a first of its kind and very complex. Each home is in a different condition and every property owner brings different requests, needs, and priorities. The time it takes to complete remediation on a given property is dependent on several factors. Considerations include the extent of historic waste found on a property, the amount of restoration work required, other residential cleanups happening in the same neighbourhood, the availability of building materials, specific requests of homeowners, weather and many other factors.
Additionally, CNL strives to balance the overall environmental impact of the cleanup work on the community with the requests of individual property owners, which takes additional planning time.
Many properties require a full construction season for completion, while other properties with a small area of impact can be completed in a few months.
If you are currently having your property remediated as part of the program, you can contact your assigned Field Liaison Officer for updates or to resolve issues if they arise.
It is the complex nature of having agreements in place, coordinating with neighbours and municipal partners and completing all steps to design each cleanup that determine which property gets cleaned up and when. All participating properties are expected to be cleaned up by the project completion date, 2032.
Mortgage/Financial Impacts
You asked us about the impact of remediation decisions on mortgages and insurance, including whether properties that opt out of remediation can be sold and if this affects the property deed.
After the PHAI cleanup, homeowners will receive a Compliance Letter, and Radiological Status Letters are available at any time. Those letters confirm what PHAI work was completed on the property. These letters are for homeowner records. There is no requirement to share them — although a buyer and their agent may ask during a real estate transaction.
This information is not recorded on your property title. And importantly, participation in the PHAI is voluntary. The presence of low-level radioactive waste on a residential property does not prevent people from selling their properties and it does not impose land use restrictions.
If you or your realtor, lender, or insurer ever have questions — we are available to speak with them directly.
Process
You asked us to explain the soil sampling process, including where soil analysis is done, turnaround times, and reasons for delays. You also inquired about project efficiency and oversight on worksites.
In each case CNL must confirm that the property is clean, before restoration begins. Soil samples are sent to an independent laboratory to verify that the property meets PHAI cleanup criteria. Laboratory analysis typically takes two to four weeks and may be required multiple times for a given property.
During that time, the remediation crew moves on to another site to continue work. Once we get confirmation that the property meets the cleanup criteria, restoration work can begin. However, restoration is often weather-and season-dependent. It also depends on the availability of materials like sod, asphalt, and plants.
Every effort is made to coordinate multiple work crews across multiple sites simultaneously.
Each person on site has a specific role to meet PHAI licence requirements and ensure safety. The work is carefully sequenced, so team members may need to wait for others to finish before they can safely begin their part. What might look like downtime is planned and coordinated.
This is a federally regulated project overseen by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Every stage of the process is documented, reviewed, and quality checked. The requirements involved are far greater than a typical construction or renovation project.
You asked us about how non-radiological findings are managed and whether they require remediation. You also inquired about the number of companies involved in the cleanup, the daily workforce size, and how many active work sites are currently underway in the town.
If non-radiological elements, also known as contaminants of potential concerns (COPC), are identified during soil sampling the property owner is notified. If the COPC are mingled with historical low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) they will be removed during the cleanup process. Otherwise, the COPC are left in place.
There are 4 companies contracted by CNL to complete work on the PHAI: Arcadis, WSP, ECC and Bird. These contractors hire additional subcontractors to work on PHAI sites as needed. The daily workforce in Port Hope varies between 300 and 700 CNL employees and contractors, depending on the PHAI work being completed. With the Major Sites winding down this number continues to go down.
There are currently 6 active major sites with two of the sites in the restoration phase. There are currently 100 private property remediations scheduled for the 2025/2026 construction season.
Cleanup Criteria
You asked us about the status and progress of the arsenic application, including efforts to expedite federal approval.
CNL continues to work with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and other regulators on a potential change to arsenic levels in the PHAI Cleanup Criteria to reduce some impacts of remediation on private properties.
Any change must remain protective of human health and the environment. We will keep the community informed as this process moves forward.
However, we are not simply waiting for that change to make improvements. The team has been laser-focused on making broader project improvements to reduce environmental impacts and stay on schedule wherever possible. For instance, we are working to speed up soil verification and restoration timelines. We’ll provide more updates on those improvements as we work through them.
Major Sites
You asked us about timelines and status updates for major projects like West Beach, the Highland South Ravine, and the Highland Drive Landfill. You also inquired about land ownership after the ravine project and progress on the pier and harbour restoration. Finally, you asked if the Port Hope Long Term Waste Management Facility would be taking waste from OPG or Chalk River.
Only PHAI materials will be stored in the Port Hope Long Term Waste Management Facility, now and in the future.
The work at the Highland Drive Landfill is ongoing, with completion of the excavation expected in 2025. The restoration and replanting may continue in to spring 2026. The work in the Highland South Ravine is also ongoing, with the installation of a permeable reactive barrier (PRB) underway. After the PRB installation, the pond area will be cleaned up and restored. The team expects work in the South Ravine to be complete this year, if restoration and replanting are not complete by November, restoration will continue into next spring.
The Highland South Ravine is owned by CNL and will remain CNL property to allow ongoing monitoring and maintenance of the PRB. A portion of the Highland Landfill site is owned by the Municipality of Port Hope and the portion closer to Cavan Street is owned by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL).
Remediation work in the Port Hope Harbour is complete, restoration and revetment of the harbour walls is ongoing. Remediation and restoration of the Centre Pier, an industrial waste site, is approximately 90% complete. The Harbour and Centre Pier projects are on track to be completed in 2026.
You can learn more about the west beach work here: https://www.phai.ca/waterworks-west-site-playground-parking-and-environmental-progress/.
Watch for Major Sites updates on our website here: https://www.phai.ca/news-publications/features-updates/
Trees
You asked about plans to restore the tree canopy, as well as who was responsible for landscape design and the approach taken to rehabilitate the East Beach, Chemetron Lagoon and Lion’s Park areas after cleanup.
Environmental protection is a key part of our mission. That includes protecting trees wherever we can. In addition, we have a plan to replace trees according to homeowner wishes as well as a Tree Policy with the Municipality of Port Hope. We know how important mature trees are to the character and beauty of this community and we have continued to find ways to balance the requirement to remove the impacted soil with the need to minimize impact on the natural environment.
Unfortunately, tree removal is necessary to remove impacted soil from various project sites in the community. To reduce tree removal within the community, we have and will continue to use our Special Circumstances protocol, where applicable, to save trees on public and private land. We are now providing a property owner directed option through our protocol to allow homeowners to save trees on their properties as they wish.
All restoration plans for private properties and major sites are reviewed and discussed with the owner prior to remediation and restoration work taking place. Restoration plans and landscape designs for the East Beach, Chemetron Lagoon and Lions Park were reviewed and agreed upon with the Municipality of Port Hope, the property owner.
Communication
You asked us about the methods CNL uses to communicate with Port Hope residents.
As part of our communications program, we’re committed to providing updates about our work and plans. We also know that communication isn’t just about giving information—it’s about listening. If what we’re doing isn’t working for you, we want to change it and we welcome your suggestions.
Let us know what works for you so we can meet you where you are—both in terms of the type of information and the way we communicate. If there’s a better way to share updates or communicate with you, we want to know. Your feedback really does shape how we move forward.
Health
You asked us whether the remediation poses a real health risk to Port Hope residents. You also inquired who is responsible for oversight, and where the data can be accessed.
Port Hope is a safe place to live. This is why participation in the PHAI cleanup is completely voluntary. The PHAI is a community-requested cleanup and is the result of the 2001 legal agreement between the Municipality of Port Hope and the federal government. The government of Canada has accepted responsibility for the historic waste and has contracted CNL to complete the cleanup.
CNL’s mandate is to identify the historic waste, remediate the lands and provide safe, long-term storage of the waste to limit future spread of material. In practice, we have encountered challenges that require us to balance the impact of the project on the community and the environment with our mandate to remediate the lands.
The cleanup of public and private lands in Port Hope is being carried out under the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission licence which includes requirements for site signage and other precautions. CNL implements these requirements to ensure compliance with our regulator.
For more information on the health studies that have been conducted for Port Hope, check our website or contact us for a copy of the CNSC health synthesis report and subsequent third-party studies.
CNL’s team is available to answer questions at any time. Simply connect via [email protected], call us at 905.885.0291 or reach out on Facebook.
