The Ministry of the Environment is moving forward with the next step in the Deloro Mine cleanup process.

Danford Construction of MADD was awarded an $844,000 contact to upgrade the 1.7-kilometre mine access road last year. With the road complete, the next phase of the project, construction of three engineered caps to isolate and contain wastes, can begin, a ministry spokeswoman said.

The 202-hectare mine site is split into four main areas: industrial, mining, tailings and Young’s Creek. The tailings area, spanning about eight hectares, will take about a year-and-a-half to cap, said Heather Hawthorne, communication advisor with the MOE.

The first cap will help contain about 45,000 cubic metres of waste and contaminants such as Arsenic, cobalt, copper, nickel, and low-level radioactive materials in the tailings area, to the east of the Moira River.

In 1986/87, the MOE covered the tailings area with half a metre of crushed limestone to eliminate wind and surface water erosion and to act as a shield against the low-level radioactivity in the tailings, Hawthorne said.

Now, “the ministry’s plan is to cover the existing limestone cover with an engineered cap 1.65 metres thick. The cap will be vegetated with hybrid poplar trees and grass (and) cover an area of eight hectares,” Hawthorne said in an e-mail.

Once the first soil cap is in place, the MOE will then work to divert surface water through a man-made trench.

“Contaminated groundwater and seepage will be collected and pumped to the Arsenic treatment plant for treatment,” she said, and an interceptor ditch will be built to divert clean, upstream surface water away from the engineered cap.

The completion of all three caps is expected to take about five to six years, Hawthorne said.

According to a press release, the Ontario government has spent about $32 million on cleanup efforts since the property was assumed by the MOE when the owner failed to comply with orders to stop pollution.

“The ministry has made significant progress in dealing with the complex and multi-faceted environmental issues at the site,” Hawthorne said, resulting in the reduction of arsenic by about 80 per cent.

For more background information on the Deloro Mine Site cleanup project visit www.ontario.ca/delorominesite.

via Next step in mine cleanup to begin – Community Press – Ontario, CA.