Soil will cost city $1.2M, Solvent under arena site delays groundbreaking
09/10/2007
by -- Christina Toth, The Times
www.canada.com
Abbotsford, BC - The soil cleanup on the site of the future sports and entertainment complex on King Road will cost about $1.2 million and will push the project's official groundbreaking into the fall.
The latest tests show the soil is contaminated with an industrial solvent, not diesel fuel, as was first thought when the discovery was made in early July.
The solvent soaked into the gravelly soil and came within 10 metres of the aquifer below it, said Abbotsford Mayor George Ferguson.
"As I understand it, the site used to belong to a subsidiary of Ocean Cement and they made cement blocks there. It also used to be a heavy equipment site, with bulldozers and the like," he said.
Ferguson said the city has an obligation to clear out the contamination, as well as requirements from the Environment Act.
"If someone's wells are affected in the future, and we didn't fix it, we'd look pretty silly," he said.
Richmond-based Hazco Environmental Ltd. has already removed thousands of tons of contaminated material for treatment in Burnaby, and more soil is being removed.
New, clean fill must be brought in to replace what has been removed and it must be compacted to provide stability for the new building.
That work will delay the start of the project into the fall, likely into October, Ferguson said.
Groundbreaking was first planned for late summer.
Money for the remediation comes from the project's contingency fund, which set aside $5.4 million for unforeseen costs.
"Each of the [Plan A] projects has a contingency fund, so it will come out of that," said Ferguson.
PCL Constructors Ltd. is contracted to build the arena complex for $55 million, and the city budgeted another $10.5 million for demolition, site preparation and relocating businesses.
The project was set to be finished in March 2009.
(Source: Canada.com, August 31, 2007, www.canada.com)
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