The more proximate you are to a problem, the more you are vested in finding a solution, quickly. While this may seem obvious, this hasn’t, in general, been applied to environmental remediation of impacted sites.
For example, environmental issues at abandoned industrial sites or old historical federal sites are typically addressed by the federal or provincial governments. While they are likely well intentioned in their efforts, the outcome, or rate of the outcome, does not usually impact them directly.
Calgary Wants More Control over Sites
The City of Calgary, Alberta, would like to shift this paradigm by taking control of contaminated sites. As reported in CBC News, the City of Calgary is negotiating with the Canadian federal government for new powers that will give it more say over contaminated land within the City.
According to the report, “Currently, the city has no control and no authority to inspect or clean up the contamination at sites it doesn’t own and needs provincial approval for cleanup at sites it does.”
As way of example, the Mayor of Calgary, Naheed Nenshi, mentioned an old gas station that had an historical release of an estimated 9,000 litres of fuel, but it sat in “limbo” for years. “You know, we have the expertise, we understand urban environmental issues and we have the ability to clean it up. We did not have the authority to clean it up. We didn’t even have the authority to enter the land.”
The Mayor said, “Alberta Environment lacks the ability, but holds all the authority… [this] doesn’t serve the citizens well.”
Old, abandoned gas stations are something with which nearly every community can relate. The lingering, potential human health and environmental exposures, as well as idled land that is not creating jobs or revenues, has a real impact on communities.
Example of Local Control Success
Gaining local control of environmental efforts makes a lot of sense. In the Dragun US office, we have been involved with a project where the US Federal Government was the lead. In this case, it was an old Department of Defense site, and the effort was led by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Our clients took a rather decisive and bold step and pursued the US Federal Government to take control of the site. See summary by Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
There are no shortages of sites where environmental issues need attention and resolution – sooner than later. The TCE issue in Cambridge, Ontario, is one which many are familiar. If you can get past the question of funding the effort (no small question), then it’s a matter of who should “control” the environmental assessment/remediation.
We will keep an eye on the progress the City of Calgary is making in taking control of contaminated sites, as well as other paradigm-shifting efforts to clean up sites in communities with greater effectiveness.
As always, your comments are welcome. You can reach me at 519-979-7300.