MUNI cleanup minor: report
Low pollution levels at airport open door wider to redevelopment
Gordon Kent, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 6:33 am
EDMONTON - Despite fears that closing the City Centre Airport could lead to massive cleanup costs, a new report says tests done since 1995 indicate the contaminated ground shouldn't require significant remediation.
Studies of 28 sites along the airport's eastern and western edges either didn't show significant levels of pollution or recommended ways to deal with it, according to a city report written for next week's public hearing on whether to keep the facility open.
Coun. Tony Caterina still maintains the cleanup bill could reach $1 billion, far more than the potential profit from selling the property for development.
But a review of the existing assessments suggests "only a localized pattern of contamination events," the report says. "These are typically what would be expected to be found in association with light to medium industrial activities, with no significant remediation requirements expected."
An overall environmental assessment would have to be done before the airport could be redeveloped, the report says. It also indicates the most likely of three concepts for the 217-hectare area would see it become home to 32,000 people living in 18,600 medium- and high-density housing units, with LRT service, commercial and office space, and expansion room for NAIT.
An appraiser has confirmed assumptions made in an earlier report, which found this 15- to 20-year project could give the city a $486-million windfall and produce $68 million in property taxes.
"Because several major pending projects could be impacted by (airport) land use changes ... and due to the opportunity to generate revenue to help bridge the city's infrastructure funding shortfall, it is prudent for the city to decide the direction of the (airport) land by June 2009."
The report suggests city administrators and consultants do further research by early next year on topics such as the possible expense of buying out the leases of existing businesses.
The report also suggests an analysis of potential downtown development if building height limits were removed.
Caterina, who has called for expanded service at the airport, said Wednesday the latest report doesn't change his mind about possible pollution problems on the property.
"They have gone to a couple of areas on the periphery and tested, but there has never been an environmental assessment on the entire site," he said. "During the '30s and '40s and '50s, with the air force out there, there were people dumping gasoline by the barrel. There's a lot of information that hasn't come out."
He supports a call by the Kingsway Business Association to postpone the hearings set for next Tuesday and Wednesday so people can collect more information. "I wanted to reopen this debate so we could get something done. We can't go another 13 or 15 years just letting it sit the way it's sitting."
Voters decided in a 1995 plebiscite to consolidate flights at the Edmonton International Airport. The Edmonton Airports Authority now limits scheduled flights into the downtown airport to planes with a maximum of 10 seats.
One issue that still isn't resolved is what effect closing the airport would have on medevac and other health services.
While the report says Alberta Health staff hasn't comprehensively studied the issue, Capital Health spokesman Rob Stevenson said the main impact would be on shipping organs taken for transplant from people who die at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.
"It would be a setback for sure, and we would certainly work with the City of Edmonton and our team of experts to come up with an alternative solution. We would find a way to get around it."
In 2007-08, 67 flights bringing in or taking away organs used the City Centre Airport and 40 flights used the international, Stevenson said.
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© The Edmonton Journal 2008
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/story.html?id=0d759334-767a-44e0-a28f-64e3088d9853&p=2
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