Randy Pace

Excavation activities in the highly-contaminated areas of the creosote contaminated former-Domtar site are now largely complete, and with the cooler weather the petrochemical odour will hopefully decrease, said Nathan Boskers, the Springwood project manager for the site.

He said the odour, or the smell of hydrocarbons being released from the chemicals of the creosote as the site is excavated and the dirty soil is sorted, is within air quality limits approved by the province.

Former-resident Randy Pace said he had to leave town because he felt his chemical sensitivity was being irritated by the smell of hydrocarbons — especially benzene, xylene and toluene, which are present at the site.

“Springwood regrets any inconvenience for odours associated with the remediation activities,” said Boskers in a statement.

“Unfortunately, there is no way to remediate the contaminated materials from the Domtar site without excavating them and this is where the majority of the odours come from.”

Boskers said air quality is monitored continuously during operations by four permanent air quality stations, as well as spot checking by employees on the site.

According to Boskers’ statement, the monitoring results show that maximum emission levels to date are below the air quality limits set out by Alberta Environment and Alberta Health in the Amended Remediation Action Plan (ARAP).

He said these levels were established to be protective of public health and worker safety.

The ARAP was prepared in conjunction with Alberta Environment and Alberta Health over approximately two years. Boskers said Springwood is responsible to ensure that air quality standards, as well as similar water and soil criteria, are maintained throughout the remediation project.

Photo by Rachel Maclean

He said air quality data gathered during the remediation program is submitted to Alberta Environment and Alberta Health, and Biogénie, the company doing the actual remediation of dirty soil on site, is preparing a report that summarizes the air quality data.

“We are considering the possibility of putting this information on our website if it can be consolidated in a way that would assist area residents in better understanding the level of odours being monitored at the site,” said Boskers.

Springwood has also released a Project Update Fact Sheet on its website springwood.ca. The fact sheet outlines how the site was contaminated, information about the creosote odour, contact information and what the process is for cleaning up the site.

It also states that if nothing is done to cleanup the site then contamination will continue to leach into the groundwater, and trucking the contaminated soil offsite wouldn’t stop the smell of creosote because the odours and dust from the site are primarily related to excavating the creosote-affected soils.

The remediation process is expected to last until next fall.

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