The Hamilton Port Authority has submitted the Randle Reef containment design to the federal government for approval, sparking optimism the project to enclose toxic sediment in the harbour will finally go forward.

“Thank God,” said Jim Hudson, executive-director of the Bay Area Restoration Council (BARC). “We’re going forward on a project selected to be the best solution that we can afford.”

Randle Reef is a shallow area near U.S. Steel’s Hamilton Works, heavily contaminated with toxic coal tar. The cleanup plan involves building a containment structure around the worst sediment, then adding less-contaminated mud from other areas of the harbour and capping it to create a shipping pier.

The work must be done to stop the contamination from spreading and to help get the harbour off the International Joint Commission’s list of Great Lakes toxic hot spots.

The Port Authority placed an ad last week giving public notice of an application under the Navigable Waters Protection Act to the Minister of Transport. The application, which includes the site and engineering plans for the structure, can be viewed at the Wentworth land registry office on the fourth floor of 119 King St. W. The public has 30 days to comment.

The next big call for public comment will be on the environmental assessment of the project, said Hudson.

But a crucial piece of the plan is still missing — a financial commitment from the city to match federal and provincial contributions. Similar to the hotly-debated Pan Am stadium proposal in the city, there is federal and provincial money on the table — $30 million each for Randle Reef. Delays over the past three years have pushed the $90 million project cost to about $105 million.

For the local contribution, officials have asked Burlington and Halton Region to contribute $4 million each. The port authority has already committed to $6 million and U.S. Steel,$7 million.

The possibility of local financial problems derailing the Randle Reef project is not something Hudson wants to consider. “It would be a sad day for Hamilton … We need to deliver on things in this town … we need to execute some projects.”

The containment plan has now been thoroughly evaluated and the facility designed. “Now we need to get on with it,” he said.

Cleaning up the harbour helps the city get rid of its long-standing polluted image, Hudson added. “That is why it is so important to complete the process of getting local funding together as soon as possible.”

Delisting the harbour as a hot spot will bring over $1 billion “of tangible, economic benefits,” he said.

via TheSpec – Randle Reef project inches forward.