The operator of Hamilton’s airport has the provincial go-ahead to temporarily trap chemical-polluted run-off on the city-owned property.

The move is meant to protect the environment while experts study the extent of historic perfluorooctanyl sulfonate (PFOS) contamination at the airport, said operations director Frank Scremin.

Transport Canada hosted fire training at the airport in the 1980s and early 1990s, when PFOS was still used as an ingredient in firefighting foam. The synthetic chemical, which builds up in the tissue of humans and animals, was later banned.

The airport’s private operator, TradePort, submitted a short-term mitigation plan to the provincial Ministry of the Environment June 15. Ministry officials signed off on the plan Friday afternoon, said MOE spokesperson Jennifer Hall.

Scremin said TradePort will “immediately” begin work to modify a series of drainage ditches surrounding the former fire training pad at the airport.

“What we’re trying to do in the short term is to contain the run-off that flows off that existing fire training pad, rather than having it flow out and offsite,” he said Friday. “We’d like to get started as quickly as we can.”

The work will include “plugging” inlets and outlets to ditches surrounding the pad, he said.

The short-term protective measures won’t include a “cap” on the pad, however.

“That’s not something the ministry has advised us to do at this point,” said Scremin, who added the airport operator has a consultant studying the extent of contamination and possible “next steps.”

Hall said the ministry expects to see the results and recommendations from that study within a month.

Joe Minor calls that time lag “crazy.”

The biologist and Environment Hamilton director conducted soil tests near the airport in April and discovered “record-breaking” levels of PFOS.

“I’m not sure what they’re waiting for. They need to prevent any water from falling on the pad and washing more (chemicals) off the pad,” Minor said.

“They could do this immediately in several ways. They could immediately cover the place with tarps. They could immediately start excavating it. They could immediately install a cap so that water can’t infiltrate.”

Public concern about PFOS contamination has grown since Environment Canada scientists stumbled across high levels of the synthetic chemical in turtles living in Binbrook Conservation Area’s Lake Niapenco.

Subsequent provincial soil testing in ditches near the airport pinpointed the city-owned property as the likely source of the contamination.

City tests of wells and ponds near the airport, however, suggest residents’ health isn’t at risk.

Councillors discussed a ministry report on the pollution last Monday and expressed disappointment that no MOE representatives were on hand to answer questions.

Local ministry officials weren’t asked to attend that meeting, Hall said Friday.