Clean up of 's most contaminated land by Louise Livingstone Deloro - The Ontario Environment and Energy minister Norm Sterling will visit the Deloro Mine site on Thursday July 3 to launch the next stage of the environmental clean up of the Deloro mine site. The goal is to establish and maintain environmental control of the site. Despite considerable investment, $9.23 million to date, the former industrial site is still considered to be Ontario's most contaminated land and there are massive public safety and environmental problems as the site is next to the Moira River. Also participating in the site visit are parliamentary assistant Doug GaIt MPP for Northumberland, Harry Danford MPP for Hastings and Peterborough, Gary Fox, MPP for Lennox-South Hastings, Doug Rollins, MPP for Quinte, and BillVankoughnet, MPPfor Frontenac and Addington. The history of mining at Deloro goes back to the 1860s when gold was discovered. By 1871 about 25 shallow shafts had been sunk on site. The high arsenic content of the gold ores made recovery difficult and hazardous, but technical developments made it possible. The gold mine closed in 1900s and the site with its smelters was used to process arsenic bearing silver and cobalt ores from mines in Northern Ontario. Deloro was the first plant in the world to produce cobalt commercially and during the last war was a leading producer of stellite, a cobalt-chromium-tungsten alloy. Ores from all over the world including Africa were processed at Deloro. During the 1930s, 1940s and1950s radio active concentrates were brought from Eldorado Nuclear Limited in Port Hope for further refinement. Radio active slag was spread on site. By products of the smelting process were used to make arsenic-based pesticides. In the 1960s the Ontario government began to monitor arsenic levels in the Moira River. Unable to make the owner control discharge of arsenic into the Moira River, the government took over control of the site. In 1983 an arsenic treatment plant was opened to collect, store and treat contaminated ground water. As a result the average annual arsenic concentrations in the Moira River dropped from 0.33 mg per litres in 1979 to 0.03 mg per litre in 1994. Further work was done to stabilise eight hectares of ferric hydroxide mine tailing on the east side of the Moira River, the pesticide building and arsenic bag house were cleaned up, unsafe structures were demolished and waste oil and pesticides removed. Also between 1993 and 1995 there was federal! provincial project costing close to $750,000 to close the mine workings. Despite all this The Bay of Quinte Remedial Action Plan (RAP) still identifies the Delora site as an ongoing source of arsenic to the Bay of Quinte Watershed and recommends the acceleration of the site rehabilitation program. The Ministry of Environment and Energy (MOEE)has selected CH2M Gore and Storrie Limited (CG & S), one of the largest consulting engineering firms in Canada specializing in environmental engineering, to begin the next stage of rehabilitation. Work will be carried out in two main stages. The first stage scheduled for completion for March 31, 1998 contains an investigation and evaluation of the wastes, flood plain mapping, preparation of health and safety plans and environmental protection plans, design of hazardous waste storage facilities, preparation of approval applications, tender documents and contracts .>The second stage requires ministerial approval and involves actual construction of facilities to contain and manage the hazardous wastes. A public liaison committee with representatives from neighbouring communities and environmental groups as well as a technical committee. have been set up. For further information on the ongoing rehabilitation of the Delora Site please contact jim Ritter, Ministry of Environment and Energy, Tel. No: 613.549.4000. problem that does not go aw y

by Louise Livingstone Hastings Cty. - Looking based pesticides were made through the environment. Pro- ming." Was he right? A quick through the beautiful colour and the arsenic bag house fessor Harry Hemond ofM.I.T. look at the Ontario Vital Sta- supplement produced by the were demolished and the old in Boston headed a research tistics produced each year by Moira River Conservation mine workings were closed. It team looking at the local the Ontario Registrar General Authority to celebrate their fif- is increasingly expensive to Aberjona watershed for almost show deaths from cancer per tieth birthday you won't find keep the treatment plant open ten years. His team found al- 100,000 in in any mention of Deloro Mine, and obviously it is not a long- though most of the arsenic was the 1970s and 1980s to be con- the most contaminated site in term solution. 'originally released in the head- siderably higher than the On- Ontario which lies in the mid- In the spring of 1997 the On- waters of the watershed, it has tario average. (Loyalist Col- dle of the watershed. It is not a tario Minister of the Environ- moved and the potential for hu- lege Library does not hold the new problem. It's one people ment, Norman Sterling, man exposure exists far from volumes for the 1990s.) have lived with for genera- launched another study. "We any designated hazardous waste Research is being done tions. Do we bury our heads in want to protect public health site. Both surface water and through out the world linking the sand like the ostrich and and safety and end a threat to groundwater were found to be the amount of arsenic people hope the problem goes away? Moira River water quality that important transport pathways. take into their bodies with Arsenic, as well as other toxic extends all the way to the Bay They concluded that risk assess- risks of disease. Surely as heavy meta s, cadmiurn, co- of Quinte," he said. ments or remedial investiga- Deloro is the most polluted ar- balt, copper nickel and zinc, The consulting firm Gore and tions restricted to designated senic site in North America left from the smelting indus- Storrie was chosen to work out sites in a watershed may yield the health impacts should be try, have been leaching into what to do. This stage is to be both an inaccurate picture of the studied. The acting Public Of- the groundwater and surface completed by March 1998 with overall risks and were not the ficer of Health for Hastings water for at least a century. tenders ready to go for the actual best place to focus remedial and Prince Edward County, When private industry decided cleanup in stage two. The gov- work. Cost-effective manage- Dr. Alexander Huckowich, there was no more wealth to be emment has not formally com- ment of the problem depend on told The Community Press extracted for Deloro, the On- mitted money to the cleanup it- understanding where arsenic Deloro is not a recent problem tario goverrunent was landed self as it does not know what it goes and the whole watershed and it has a long standing his- with the problem. When it will cost. There is a technical should be considered when tory. People are advised not to took over the site in the 1970s committee advising on the work dealing with chemical contami- drink untreated surface water the perceived wisdom was that as well as a public committee nation in the environment. wherever they live. He did not the pollution went into the with representatives of groups, The problem of Deloro is far- think there had been any pub- river and gently floated down such as the Moira Lake Property reaching and complex. Even if lic health studies in the area. stream into the Bay of Quinte, Owners Association. Suppos- it is possible to clean up the He did explain published sta- with maybe some landing in edly action is being taken at last. mine site Moira Lake will con- tistics are vague and with any the bOttom of MOlfa Lake and However, the newly formed tinue to act as a source of pol- study it is difficult to isolate . Providing you did Environmental Bureau of In- lution for many years to come. the effects anyone factor not drink the river or lake wa- vestigation in conjunction One issue that seems to be ig- might have especially if the ter or eat the fish more than with the Sierra Legal Defence nored is the health of people population living there is once a year, you were quite Fund don't think living in the watershed. When small. Low revels of arsenic in safe, although there is increas- what the Ontario well-known Ontario coroner the enviroranent cause chronic ing evidence that arsenic government is do- and author Dr. Morton rather than acute health prob- causes cancer, vascular dis- ing is enough and Shulman heard of the pending lems and it is difficult to prove ease, is linked with diabetes, they are pressing court case he wrote to the Si- direct links. As a member of and cause abnormal embryo in .criminal charges. erra Legal Defence Services the technical advisory com- birds and mammals. The list They argue that about work he and his daugh- mittee for the Deloro cleanup goeson. after 18 years and a res-did-in the"'197es on Deloro. ne sees. value in background After much discussion a lot of foot dragging He quotes a chapter in his studies to see how much ar- treatment plant was put in at 3.27 tonnes of ar- book, Member of the Legisla- senic people in the area ingest Deloro to remove arsenic from senic were still go- ture called Arsenic and Old or take into their bodies and the water before it made its ing into the river in Tories in which he describes a whether there is a reduction way into the Moira River. The 1996. The charges major cover up. He identified over time following the plant is now operated for the are being made un- cancer rates in the area were cleanup. However, with or Ministry of the Environment der the Federal growing at a rate 75 per cent without health studies Dr. and Energy by the Ontario Fisheries and the faster than elsewhere and he Huckowich says the situation Clean Water Agency. There Ontario Water...:R~e::.-_c~alfor=l:=immediateed:", action in has to be sorted out. was a dramatic reduction in sources Act for de- the Ontario Legislature. The Province of Ontario rep- the concentration of arsenic in positing deleteri- The local Medical Officer of resented by the Ministry of the the Moira River from 33 mg ous substances into Health issued the statement, Environment and Energy will per litre to .03 mg per litre. the water. (Sierra "In my opinion and in the appear in the Belleville Court However, by 1990 a plateau Legal Defence opinion of the Ontario Water on December 16. was reached; the level is not Fund was set up in Resources Com- going down and there are still 1990s to work with mission and the unexplained peaks and environmental Department of troughs. As well as the arsenic groups and first na- Public Health there treatment plant, there has been tions. If a fine is is no danger of peo- a general site cleanup, eight paid part goes to- ple developing hectares of ferric hydroxide ward paying legal cancer. The lake mine tailing contaminated costs.) water is drunk only with arsenic, on the east side Since the 1970s by a small propor- of the Moira, were stabilized, therehas been much tion of cottagers ... the building where arsenic research on arsenic There is no danger and how it moved involved in swim- by Louise Livingstone Nuclear, via SasKatoon an Port ope. Deloro - "Quinte Conservation has writ- Arsenic was an important by-product of CH4 Gore and Storrie was appointed in July 1997 to develop plans for the final ten to both the prime minister of Canada smelting and was manufactured into a and the premier of Ontario to ask them to chemical pesticide. When DDT, intro- closure of the site. Stage one includes the final investigations and drawing up the support the MoE, to enable them to make duced in the late 1940s and 1950s as a proper choices and not just the cheapest more effective pesticide, the arsenic mar- contracts for the construction engineers. with regard to the cleanup of Deloro," ket dropped off and arsenic was stock- Stage two is the actual construction work. said Terry Murphy as he introduced Jim piled at Deloro. Unfortunately, it was in a When defining the extent of contamina- Ritter, Ontario Ministry of the Environ- very soluble form and by the 1960s the tion, contaminated soils were found be- ment (MoE) project officer since 1992. Ontario Water Resources Commission yond the area of the mine site. As a result Ritter came to the last meeting of the was concerned about the amount of ar- ther.e has been a large, comprehensive, board of the Moira River Conservation senic in the Moira River. The site environmental health risk study costing Authority (MRCA) to give an update on changed hands and there was a govern- $750,000, for the Village of Deloro. It is a progress. Ritter said he welcomed the op- ment order against the owners, Erickson multimedia study of soil, air, dust, radon portunity. The Deloro mine site covers Construction, to reduce the amount of ar- gas and contamination of vegetables. 650 acres. Forty acres were used for senic getting into the river. There have been over 178,000 measure- smelting, industrial buildings, pesticide Finally, the company declared bank- ments taken, including urine sampling. manufacture, casting and refining. The ruptcy and in 1979 the MoE took over the Sampling has been done for arsenic, co- red mud or tailings area to the east of the site. There was a high level of arsenic in balt, nickel, lead and silver as well as ra- Moira River covers another 20 acres. the Moira River, the red mud tailings dioactive materials. Dr. Noseworthy, Young's Creek, which runs south to the were uncovered, and fine particulate ma- medical officer ofheaIth for Hastings and Moira River, is contaminated from these terial was blowing around. There, was ra- Prince Edward, a consultant from the poi- red mud tailing. "It is its own animal," dioactive material on site: uranium 238 sons section of the Sick Children's Hospi- said Ritter. and radium 226, as well as radon gas. The tal in Toronto, as well as representatives The whole Deloro site was used for gold abandoned mine workings were a hazard from the MoE and mining between 1866 and 1902, when ore with old shafts and pits abandoned since the Ontario Minis- extraction stopped. The mining company 1900. The timber over the top of the try of Health are on developed the infrastructure for dealing shafts was rotting and the shafts were col- the steering com- with ores containing arsenic. The lapsing. The company (Erickson Con- mittee. The study is O'Brien family, which owned silver struction) had built a crude arsenic treat- now out for peer re- mines in Cobalt, sent ores to Deloro to be ment system. view with experts processed for silver, cobalt and arsenic. The Moira River was darnmed by the from Canada and Later on ores came from Morocco and for MoE in 1982 and pumped out to see the United States 30 years (1930 - 1960) from Eldorado where groundwater seeped into the river studying the find- . and to find where t le rg est eve s of ings. Ritter con- contamination were. Six ground water cluded by saying, pumps were put in and linked up to a stor- "We think we have age lagoon. Levels of arsenic coming in done a thorough from the pumping stations along the river job, but after the were up to 1,500 rug/litre. peer review there The red mud tailings have been covered may be more to with half a metre of crushed limestone. do." This has raised the ph of the tailings, The other part is which means the heavy metals are less the Moira River Impact Study. In Decem- mobile. The limestone chips also control ber, consultants were asked to review the, dust The most highly contaminated what is know about the Moira River and buildings have been demolished. In 1992 to develop a terms of reference for a the federal government identified Deloro study. Th~ aim of the study is three fold; as a high-risk orphan site and helped fund t? d~t~rmme the extent and ecological the closure of the abandoned mine works. significance of contamination in the There were five main mining claims at Moira River system, which has and is cur- Deloro: Cook, Hawkeye, Pierce, Gatling rently coming from the former Deloro and Tuttle. Using a grid pattern technique ~ne site; to undertake a screening level and field survey the engineers were able fisk assessment of exposure and associ- to get a three-dimensional picture of what ated risk to hea~thfor people living down- was happening below ground. There stream of the site and to predict environ- were 110 mine related features located, mental response in the Moira River sys- with 50 being significant. These were tem to remedial measures at the former back filled and capped using reinforced mine site. concrete guaranteed to last for a very long Two firms, Golder Associates Ltd. of time. Mississauga and Global Tox International The arsenic treatment plant was up- Consultants Inc. of Guelph, Ontario, a risk graded and the contaminated sludge, con- assessment firm, have been employed to do taining arsenic and heavy metals from the surveys from the end of April until October treatment plant was put into temporary la- and to report back by March 2000. In a letter goons. (MoE is exploring methods of sent to members of the various Deloro com- making this sludge inert as the cost of mittees, Golder Associates were described Continued on page 3. as ha~1~-nsive expertise and expe~ ence III surface water assessment particu- larly in relation to impacts from the mining c..o'l't. 'M U. tW cl' ~ {J -R. r:-~s sector. Global Tox's expertise in human ~\£:£'rJ ~lT 16tJ health toxicology and incommunicating the complexity of this science in an easy to un- £..1 lv\ 1\j Iqlf q derstand language will also be valuable to this study. Jointly these companies have put together a project team that will bring a ~IS. 1~.3 .fresh, innovative approach to the past and continuing study of this river system. Ritter ended by saying work is planned to start at the Deloro site in the fall, 1999 with site preparation to enable work·t~ start in the year 2000 construction season. Before this work can start there is a con- sultation process to go through and an rConservation authority meets in Deloro by Louise Livingstone thority know. Deloro - The Moira River Conservation Authority (MRCA) Quinte Conservation received a letter of congratulation from had its"last meeting at Deloro to give members a chance to Simcoe Conservation authority as theirs is the first success- find out about the progress of the cleanup of the mine site. ful amalgamation in Ontario. Before the Deloro presentation, manager Terry Murphy told Quinte Conservation agreed to ask Domtar to manage some the board a fund raiser for Quinte Conservation had been ap- 100 acres of forested land belonging to the authority. It would pointed for six months. The initial project is to promote the not be a long-term agreement. The Forestry Division of Domtar "Adopt an Acre" program. There is also a Quinte Conserva- has stringent standards more rigorous than the province, said tion membership card allowing people to sponsor the authority. Murphy. High quality hard wood will be sold and pulp wood "The card is a way of making a donation to the authority," will be used at the Trenton Plant. said Murphy. The fund raiser has helped with the organiza- The Longwell property, on'Concession 5, Sidney Ward, of tion of the Prince Edward Conservation Dinner and will come Quinte West, has been leased to two farmers. One of them up with other fund-raising ideas. There is going to be another has passed away. Half a dozen farmers have expressed inter- fund-raising dinner at 0'Hara's Mill June 12 with entertain- est in the land offering rent of up to $50 per acre. As there ment, a roast beef dinner and an auction with Boyd Sullivan. are 40 acres this could bring in $2,000 per year. At present The City of Belleville parks department has contacted Quinte the land has been rented on an annual basis for $20 per acre. Conservation about extension of the Waterfront Trail up along The committee agreed a new lease should be negotiated and the Moira River to Corbyville to link into the rail trail sys- property put out for tender. tem. Much of the city's green belt land is owned by the con- Murphy told the committee of a workshop on climate change servation authority. Murphy asked the board to send a letter organized by Quinte Watershed Cleanup. The existence of to the city approving the trail running through their property. climate change has now been accepted by the scientific com- Thought needs to be given to how the trail will run under bridges munity. Much of the work of the conservation authority has been and how it will impact on the shore line to do with flood con- and flood plain. The board agreed to ap- trol and manage- prove the trail extension in principle. ment. There is little There was some misinformation over a planning for drought proposal for a regional composting facil- and low water flow ity. Quinte Conservation turned it down conditions. This because it was not suitable for the con- spring has been very servation area to the north of the Quinte dry and the Conservation Office. However, Quinte ground water is be- Conservation is open for other propos- ing effected. There als and is not against composting. Mem- needs to be a public bers are in favour of it if there is a pro- campaign on water posal suitable for the conservation area. conservation to raise The question of payment of per diem and awareness, said mileage to board members was raised. Murphy, as people Terry Murphy explained it was the de- don't care until their cision of Quinte Conservation to pay its wells run dry. members. If, however, a township did not want councillors or appointed members to receive payment they should let the au-

Bruce Quackenbush and Richard Eldridge, owners of the newly opened Crowe River Auto Repairs, check under the hood of a 1969 Plymouth Barracuda. Judy Backus photo

CA>Mft\ \A ~ 1'1!J ~Q.L3 ~ e:-ns Te..e f\) ~ l'll a..J 2.\ MPll l

village. I As well as Larry McCormick, the coun- cil has invited Leona Dombrowsky, MPP , for Hastings, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington, to come and speak with coun- cil. She has agreed to Come to the regular meeting on August 25.

~T8tU E"blTl0J

30 -lUL '~I!lJ-l