Environment

Feds Commit Funding to Cap Randle Reef

By RTH Staff
Published December 18, 2012

The Federal Government has just committed $46.3 million toward the cleanup of Randle Reef, following similar commitments from the Provincial Government and municipal stakeholders - Hamilton, Burlington, Halton, US Steel and the Hamilton Port Authority. With this federal commitment, the project is now ready to go ahead.

The reef, a shallow just offshore near Burlington Street East and Wentworth Street North between Pier 15 and Pier 16, is severely contaminated with coal tar after decades of heavy industrial manufacturing. The solution is to build a large steel enclosure to contain the toxic sediment and to build a new shipping pier on top of it.

This initiative has been in development since 2002, when Randle Reef was listed as a Great Lakes Area of Concern. Back in 2007, the Federal government offered a one-third contribution toward the estimated $90 million cost, but it took several years for the municipal partners to match the federal and provincial commitments. Since then, the cleanup cost has increased to nearly $140 million.

In addition to $46.3 million each from the Federal and Provincial governments, the City of Hamilton, US Steel and the Port Authority are each contributing $14 million, with another $2.3 million from Burlington and $2 million from Halton.

The Hamilton 350 Committee is not as impressed with the announcement. In a press release issued this morning, the Committee accused Kent of "spending our tax dollars to bury one corporate environmental mess while his party and government paves the way for future messes by trashing Canada's environmental laws and federal scientific capacity."

The Committee decries the recent Omnibus bill, which slashes both the funding and authority of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the federal Environmental Assessment Agency and the Ministry of the Environment to protect Canada's environment, laying off hundreds of scientists and muzzling those who remain.

The Feds have also exempted pipelines from several federal regulations, paving the way for the Enbridge Line 9 reversal, which runs through Hamilton and puts the city at the potential risk of a future pipeline leak once it starts carrying corrosive diluted bitumen.

6 Comments

View Comments: Nested | Flat

Read Comments

[ - ]

By ScreamingViking (registered) | Posted December 18, 2012 at 15:44:13

Broader enviro-political issues aside, this is excellent news and hopefully work can commence immediately.

Costs shot up quite fast - by over 55% in just five years. It's possible they'll end up being even larger once work is under way, if unforeseen circumstances arise.

But the important thing is to begin.

Permalink | Context

[ - ]

By SCRAP (anonymous) | Posted December 18, 2012 at 16:02:11

It is a hypocrisy really and I agree with the above statement. Try to clean up one spot and create many, many,many more,as water that was protected, no longer is. Notice all toxic polluted spots are created by business and the laws allow them to continue this path.





Permalink | Context

[ - ]

By DrAwesomesauce (registered) | Posted December 18, 2012 at 20:53:11

Why have costs risen THAT much?

It's no wonder nobody wants to contribute - it's a cash grab!

Permalink | Context

[ - ]

By Conrad66 (registered) | Posted December 19, 2012 at 07:35:45

Like God once said .. men will distroye them self

Permalink | Context

[ - ]

By ScreamingViking (registered) | Posted December 19, 2012 at 13:34:29 in reply to Comment 84119

I'm not completely sure, but I think they rose in part due to refinement of the design. This is not going to be a simple structure that will be easy to build.

If it's just construction cost inflation, that is quite extreme (even though construction costs do tend to increase at higher rates than other major expenditures)

Permalink | Context

[ - ]

By DrAwesomesauce (registered) | Posted December 19, 2012 at 19:03:10

^Not sure he said it quite like that.

Permalink | Context

View Comments: Nested | Flat

Post a Comment

You must be logged in to comment.

Events Calendar

There are no upcoming events right now.
Why not post one?

Recent Articles

Article Archives

Blog Archives

Site Tools

Feeds