The numbers are staggering. Over the next decade, Waterfront Toronto expects to excavate two million cubic metres of contaminated soil and bring in another million of clean fill as the agency and its developers begin to revitalize the Port Lands. It's a process that will continue for decades, according to newly released real estate studies commissioned by the city.
That's enough to cover everything from Yonge to Spadina and the waterfront north to Queen in a metre of dirt. "The scale," said WT chief executive John Campbell, "is enormous."
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Under the terms of its agreement with Green Soils, WT and its partners will send contaminated Port Lands soil to the new facility, provided the company offers rates competitive with the tipping fees charged by GTA landfills and other firms that offer soil remediation, including Direct Line Environmental in Pickering. Direct Line Environment is owned by GFL, which last fall won Toronto's curbside waste outsourcing contract and also has close ties to trucking companies that haul massive quantities of Toronto construction fill out to Durham Region.
Green Soils CEO Ashley Herman said the company plans to test various emerging soil cleaning technologies licensed from other firms. "For the first little while, it's going to be a bit of a world's fair."
The potential environmental impact is significant. According to Mr. Campbell, a study done for the agency found that if waterfront construction crews relied exclusively on the "dig and dump" approach to disposing of contaminated soil excavated from the Port Lands, they will generate 50 million kilometres of truck traffic on GTA highways. The estimated cost: $65-million for road wear and tear, accidents, fuel and tipping fees. A typical dump truck costs $125 an hour to operate.
"Taking soil from a construction site to a landfill isn't the best way of doing things," said Toronto environmental consultant Gordon Onley. "As we go forward, there's going to be a breaking point."
By Canadian standards, the WT project is a novel approach to dealing with brownfield sites. But other countries have plenty of experience in this field, especially the Netherlands; indeed, WT consulted with Dutch firms as it developed the soil cleaning strategy. Quebec, in turn, has landfill taxes designed to encourage construction companies to find other uses for excess soil.
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