EJQ6 - Fall 2025 - Journal - Page 13
“It’snotaone-size-昀椀ts-allsituation.SoilsinWesternCanada
aredi昀昀erentfromsoilsinSouthernOntario,withcompletely
di昀昀erentchemistries.Regulationsshouldaccountforthe
jurisdictionalandecologicalfactors.”
There are a few key issues to consider. First, if you scrape the soil,
you’re not only removing the contaminated soil, you’re removing the
seed bank that’s developed over decades. Secondly, you don’t eliminate
your liability; even when you deposit to a certi昀椀ed collection site, the
company still owns the liability for any of the contaminants in that soil,
so you haven’t really 昀椀xed your problem from a corporate point of view.
Third, it’s quite expensive and has a signi昀椀cant environmental impact
in and of itself. With a lot of these sites being remote, there’s a lot of
truck tra昀케c, which creates greenhouse gas emissions, extra expense,
and safety issues.
With these key issues in mind, Fogwill said they’re looking at in-situ
monitors and chemical or biological tools to remove salts, metals and
heavier hydrocarbons from the soils.
Meikle concurs that what he’s seen is a general shift towards how the soils
are being handled on-site. “Depending on the site’s location, you can avoid
complicated soil relocation, but [the options] are very site-speci昀椀c. They don’t
always work for every site, depending on the soil conditions, depending on the
logistics of the site.”
Meikle added that he’s using arti昀椀cial intelligence (AI) to help with soil
characterization. He mentioned that he’s working with Trium Environmental
Inc., based in Calgary and that their AI characterization tool is used on a remote
site. He says the portable nature of the tool replaces the need for an on-site lab.
“We’re looking at all the same in-昀椀eld type technology,” pointed out Purves.
“I’m quite excited about AI and that technology enabling our people.”
Fogwill added that there are speci昀椀c aspects to consider regarding risk
management tools. Two speci昀椀c examples that they’re focused on at PTAC is
benchmarking for salt and elemental versus molecular concentrations of metals.
With regard to salt, Fogwill referenced the national benchmark standard that’s
based on work that was done in Southern Ontario. “Yet, we know that Western
Canadian soils are very di昀昀erent from a salt tolerance point of view for the
ecosystem around there. So, trying to clean up salt contamination on sites based
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