Multi-million dollar soil cleanup project continues in Simcoe

A soil remediation project that’s been creeping along since 2016 has cost the Norfolk taxpayers about $6.5 million so far and still won’t be completed for years.

“This has cost us millions of dollars – millions of dollars,” said Coun. Doug Brunton as councilors received another update on the remediation work at Tuesday’s council-in-committee meeting.

“It’s paid for by the taxpayers and I just find it odd that we haven’t really found the source.”

Brunton said he believes, due to the amount of contamination that has sprawled across the land, there must be a tank that, perhaps, is continuing to leak but has not yet been found.

Discovered in 2008 at the site of an old municipal garage on Queensway West, the spill was targeted by council for clean-up in 2016.

But while the immediate area was dealt with by 2018, further testing found a ‘plume’ of contaminants moving east through the soil and groundwater from the old building, passing the Ontario Provincial Police station and heading toward a residential townhouse complex.

An engineering firm and field contractor have been working on what’s dubbed the Norfolk County Soil Remediation Project.

Soil contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs) has been dug out and removed, a carbon wall was installed to capture contaminants as they flowed east and injection wells have been dug to treat the soil with bacteria that breaks down chemicals.

Dave Smith, a director with consulting engineers Peto MacCallum Ltd., said an underground leaking tank has never been discovered over the course of the project but he believes there are no more contaminants being released into the ground.

“Often in a case like this we’re not talking about a single source,” Smith told councilors. “Likely there was a leaky tank, metal piping from a tank, poor waste management or spills that happened.”

An engineer’s report work has succeeded in halting the progression of the plume of contaminants. “Waste handling and disposal practices have changed a lot over the decades,” said the report.

Smith agreed work would likely need to continue – possibly reaching the point of monitoring the area only – for another three or four years. The plan is currently in Year 2 of a five-year process.

“This is hard to take,” said Coun. Mike Columbus.

“Isn’t there any technology that could speed this process up?”

Smith said while the project began with older technology, resulting in land being dug up and removed, the work now is using state-of-the-art processes.

Previous councils have approved the project in capital budgets with an overall price-tag of $10.4 million with another $750,000 in costs in 2024.

Coun Chris VanPaassen said it was encouraging the most recent data from the testing in the area is showing “positive signals” and that the contamination is lessening.

“But,” he asked, “at the end of the five-year program, will we be done with it? Is it going to be $10 million or is there going to be a Plan B after that?”

County staff said Environmental Protection guidelines might call for long-term monitoring of the site but couldn’t make predictions.

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