Quote:
Originally Posted by sureLoss
Because no level of government (Federal, Provincial, or City) wanted to touch it.
Legally the contamination is the province's responsibility unless the city starts construction on the land, then it becomes the city's problem.
They have spent so money to prevent the contamination from spreading into the river.
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In addition to this, land being contaminated to some degree is actually more common than many people think. The West Village land is among of the most sizable and prominent but there are plenty of other examples in the city:
- Parts of the current Quarry Park development are contaminated, mainly the parts where there is surface parking, as that was all you could economically do with those areas. Doing more with these areas would have meant doing costly cleanup.
- The former Hub Oil site at 17th Avenue and 60th Street SE. There was an explosion at the Hub Oil refinery in 1999, and this combined with the refinery actually operating has left the soil contaminated. There had been plans to put a "cap" (bring in new dirt over top of the contaminated dirt) on the existing site and having buildings with slab-on grade construction (minimal digging and building underground). This hasn't come to pass yet.
- The land that Deerfoot Meadows now sits on was contaminated to some degree if I recall correctly. At the very least the land was relatively difficult to build on. Again, not much else you could do economically other than surface parking lots and slab-on-grade buildings.
- Lots of sites in the SE industrial areas are contaminated and won't be able to have other uses when the Green Line LRT goes through and development pressures follow. An example is the former dry waste landfill in Ogden. In some cases, the cleanup may be economical, in many cases it won't be.
- The other strongly rumoured sites for the new stadium/arena project are probably contaminated too. Firepark (former tire plant at Memorial Drive and Deerfoot Trail) certainly is contaminated. The Railtown lands at 4th Street East and 11th Avenue SE, being former CPR lands for years and used for their operations, would almost certainly require some cleanup.
- Extending the discussion a bit, there are lots of sour gas wells that are relatively close to existing development in the city, most prominently in the far NE. Some have been eventually dealt with, others have inhibited what can be built and when.
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The point is, governments can't just go around cleaning up everything that has ever been contaminated, or require that it be cleaned up by the owners as there is a lot of it.
Practically, so long as the contamination isn't actively harming people or adjacent sites, it can wait until development pressures force an appropriate solution. This is what is happening with the West Village site. All other aspects of this proposal and arena news aside, it's good that this important area is being given a chance to be cleaned up and substantially developed.