Proposals mark start of Abitibi mill cleanup process
Environmental contamination will require further discussion
After about 100 years of operation, a paper mill can be expected to create environmental liabilities.
The mill at Grand Falls-Windsor, operated from 1909 to 2009, is no different. It also has site-specific challenges.
Environmental consultants have noted arsenic in the soil throughout the site, at least two stockpiles of a mixture of elemental sulphur and petroleum hydrocarbon, abandoned oil drums, scattered scrap metal and at least four on-site dumps — two independently confirmed as containing hazardous materials.
Overall, the mill’s liabilities have yet to be dealt with.
The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is taking the first steps.
It has called for requests for proposals from contractors inter- ested in gutting the shuttered mill buildings, then completing demolition of the structures.
“All areas within the footprints of the structures to be removed will be backfilled to match existing exterior elevations and graded to avoid the collection of surface water,” notes the request for proposals, obtained by The Telegram this week.
It is not as simple as having a few, gloved hands pulling out rusted machinery and a heavy equipment operator then pushing, hauling and shovelling the job the rest of the way.
Asbestos-containing materials were used in construction of mill buildings.
Abitibi’s work at the central mill site dates back to 1965, as AbitibiPrice took control. Abitibi-Bowater held the reins in 2009, when the mill was expropriated by the provincial government and shut down.
An employee of consultant Conestoga-Rovers Associates (CRA) walked the mill site in August 2009, as part of an environmental site assessment. The final report, filed in November 2009, is now being provided by the provincial government to contractors who are interested in the standing request for proposals.
It suggests AbitibiBowater was less than forthcoming with potentially relevant site information.
The CRA consultant was accompanied during his site visit by another environmental consultant, working for Abitibi, and a 20-year employee with the mill. According to the final report, “they were both instructed by Abitibi not to provide CRA with any details regarding facility activities, processes and history.”
The environmental site-assessment report also notes an asbestos survey was completed for the facility 10 years prior, but not made available for review.
The initial company-led tour of the site did not include a look at an existing “asbestos disposal site,” though the consultant asked about it — after the site visit was over, and it was mentioned by a former Abitibi contractor.
“The former Abitibi contractor indicated that other wastes, possibly including drums of PCBs were disposed of at this area,” noted the final CRA report. It noted 17 drums, once containing herbicides, were said to have been disposed of at the same location.
When CRA sought to look deeper throughout the site, the response from Abitibi was no less welcoming.
“Although requested for health and safety purposes, Abitibi did not provide CRA with Grand Falls site drawings depicting subsurface structures,” the consultant noted.
Abitibi used the municipal landfill during its mill operations. The company had other waste areas of its own, apart from the asbestos dump site.
There was the “sludge disposal site” on the mill property, for solids from the facility’s wastewater treatment system; an “industrial waste disposal site” of unlined pits and “Chicco’s Landing” where elemental sulphur and iron sulphide compounds were dumped and covered between the late 1960s and 1977.
“CRA observed that some of the waste within the industrial waste disposal site had entered the adjacent wetlands and liquid was seeping from the industrial waste disposal site into the adjacent wetlands.”
The mill used steam heat and was fed Bunker C from North Atlantic Refining and byproduct from paper manufacturing. Oil products were also used in maintaining machinery and for company vehicles, leading to oil-soaked ground noted at points within the property boundaries.
And so the provincial government started on site remediation, with the buildings — asking contractors avoid disturbing the ground at site as much as possible. “Except for crushed concrete previously noted, no materials are to be buried on site,” notes the standing request for proposals.
“Once we get back to brown state then we'll have to decide where do we go. Do we, as a province, decide to remediate the environmental piece or do we offload the property and then they’re responsible for the remediation of the environmental piece,” said Nick McGrath, minister of Transportation and Works, speaking earlier this month to TC Media’s The Advertiser in Grand Falls-Windsor.
“These are things we’ll have to discuss as a government.”
For Grand Falls-Windsor mayor Al Hawkins, the mill site demands a step-by-step approach, with the demolition of the buildings needed first, and as soon as possible.
“Right now I think we’re pretty anxious. ... It becomes a bit of a concern the longer you have abandoned buildings and there’s nothing remediated,” he said Friday.
The town is interested in a discussion around the future of the property according to Hawkins, but the council has yet to go back and forth in any detail on the potential for the mill site to be transferred to the municipality.
Meanwhile, the province’s request for proposals, for removal of the site buildings, was set to close July 25, but was extended to Aug. 1, to accommodate contractors who have expressed interest in making a submission.
A timeline for the work has yet to be determined.