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City Wants Help With Reef Cleanup Costs (Matthew Van Dongen, Hamilton Spectator, Aug 13, 2012)

Hamilton councillors have increased the city’s contribution to the Randle Reef cleanup to $14 million while challenging other project partners to ante up as well.

A new city report estimates the total cost of containing decades of industrial pollution in Hamilton Harbour at close to $140 million. Last year, the project was still pegged at around $105 million.

The new estimate leaves government and private partners short about $46 million to cover the elaborate plan to trap about 630,000 cubic metres of coal tar in a new shipping pier. The city and Hamilton Port Authority would probably be responsible for another $11 million, said the report.

Councillors pre-empted a planned staff report on financial options Monday and instead voted to immediately add another $6 million to the city’s existing $8 million commitment.

“We’re in,” said Councillor Brian McHattie. “Hopefully that will put some pressure on other levels of government and the port authority to put up their share as well … This has been a very long road.”

The city has been planning some sort of coal tar cleanup in the harbour for two decades, with estimated costs gradually climbing from $15 million in the 1990s to $140 million today.

John Hall, the co-ordinator of the harbour remedial action plan, called the reef one of the biggest impediments to knocking Hamilton off the International Joint Commission’s list of worst-polluted Great Lakes sites.

“Today is a big day for the harbour,” he said, referring to the reef report and a new plan to improve processes at the Woodward Avenue sewage treatment plant. Hall suggested if project funding is secured soon, Hamilton could begin the process of “delisting” the harbour as an area of concern in 2020.

Councillor Chad Collins, who moved the motion to commit the cash, called the harbour cleanup “the greatest environmental challenge this city has faced in the last 100 years.”

Collins asked staff to talk with the port authority and report back to council in the hopes of securing the local funding for the project as soon as possible. The staff report suggests asking the port authority for additional in-kind service worth $5 million on top of the agency’s existing $9 million commitment.

Port Authority president Bruce Wood told the Spectator last week he wouldn’t comment on the agency’s contribution, referring all questions to Environment Canada.

Both the provincial Ministry of Environment and Environment Canada are seeking budget approval to bump up their existing $35 million contributions, according to the staff report. Environment Minister Peter Kent said last year the government would likely take on additional costs in the project, which is now headed by federal public works and Environment Canada officials.

Councillor Lloyd Ferguson said he supported council’s decision, but asked staff why the project cost has jumped almost 45 per cent over five years. The staff report blamed inflation and more accurate engineering details for the rising cost.

But city manager Chris Murray added the project estimate contains “a fair bit for contingencies” because of the large amount of in-water work needed to encase the toxic reef in steel.

The latest report calls for project financing to be finalized this year and construction completed by 2022.