[sureLoss]

Province in talks with the polluter for West Village. Looks like the beginning of the government going after Domtar to pay for the clean up.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-...sote-polluters

Decades after a former wood preserving plant left nearly two million litres of toxic creosote on land in Calgary’s West Village, the government of Alberta has started talking to the people behind the mess.

Up until 1962, a predecessor of Domtar Corp. owned and operated the plant on a 15-hectare parcel of land where the owners of the Calgary Flames and Stampeders have recently suggested building an ambitious mega-sports complex dubbed CalgaryNEXT.

Engineers discovered the hazardous waste in the late 1980s and recent estimates have pegged remediating the land, currently occupied by a Greyhound bus station and several car dealerships, at anywhere from $50 to $140 million.

While local politicians have said the polluter should be responsible for the cleanup, officials with Alberta Environment and Parks said last year they weren’t able to pursue Montreal-based Domtar Corp. because Alberta’s environment laws don’t apply outside the province and the firm no longer had a corporate entity in the province.

It was a claim disputed by several legal experts and one the government has now done a U-turn on, though officials are remaining tight-lipped on details.

“We have initiated conversations with potential responsible parties, though we are unable to discuss the content or nature of those decisions at this time,” Jamie Hanlon, public affairs officer at Alberta Environment and Parks, said in an email.

“Until we have a definitive plan presented to us, we cannot speculate on any potential actions or outcomes and it would be inappropriate at this time to discuss the issue of remediation in any detail.”