EJQ4 - Spring 2025 - Journal - Page 14
“It’s critical to be able to focus on the areas with the
most elevated risks, to limit exposure.”
The City did initial sampling in and around the airport to understand the
scope of the contamination, retained Jacobs Consultancy Canada to conduct more extensive sampling and testing to identify areas deserving particular attention, and negotiated with DND to 昀椀nance 97 per cent of the
cost of remediation at the municipally owned airport. In 2023, the City of
North Bay contracted Clean Harbors Canada to handle actual remediation
work, which included the disposal of more than 20,000 tonnes of contaminated soil at an approved site in southern Ontario.
Crews expect to wrap up cleanup work this spring. “We’re mixing in a remedial amendment at the base of the excavation where it intersects with
the water, and then back昀椀lling,” explains Carol Mowder, a senior technical consultant with Jacobs. “We’ve done a pilot test for injecting colloidal
activated carbon into the groundwater, and we’ll be continuing to monitor that to see how far it’s distributed and its e昀昀ectiveness.” The pilot test
data will then be used to design a remedy to treat groundwater before it
exits the property.
While the undertaking at Jack Garland Airport is well underway, it won’t
address PFAS that have already migrated o昀昀-site and into Trout Lake and
its surrounding aquifer. Pratte says treatment methods, including granular activated carbon and ion exchange, are available to reduce PFAS concentrations in drinking water, and the City recently asked Jacobs to undertake a drinking water study to explore potential treatment options. “It
hasn’t been completely 昀椀nalized,” she says, adding that its 昀椀ndings remain con昀椀dential because they’re pertinent to ongoing negotiations with
DND.
Research and regulation
Complicating matters is that little is known about so many variants — a
fact Environment and Climate Change Canada tacitly acknowledged last
year when it issued a one-time reporting mandate. Under the Canadian
Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), parties to the manufacture, sale, o昀昀er
for sale, import, and use in 2023 of 312 speci昀椀c PFAS variants were asked
to report their interactions.
E N V I RON M E N T J OURN A L QUA RT E RLY RE PORT • S PRI N G 2 0 2 5 • P AGE 1 4
