MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY — Council has been updated on county-owned contaminated sites as required by provincial legislation.
The review came during the recent council meeting, held in person and on Zoom.
The sites include former county operations facilities such as vehicle storage areas and are located in all quadrants of the municipality.
The operational service department retains an environmental consultant, EnvironSearch, to monitor the contamination sites and to develop reclamation plans for the end use of the sites.
“Monitoring and reclamation plans are reviewed annually to meet provincial regulations, and to ensure that further contamination is not occurring,” said CAO Jeff Holmes.
Ailsa LeMay, a consultant with EnviroSearch, appeared before coucnil as a delegation.
The five county-owned sites currently being monitored are the former operational services yard in Sundre, the Didsbury operational services yard, the Didsbury salt yard, the Carstairs county yard, and the Olds highway maintenance yard.
Historical environmental site work at the Sundre yard, located in southwest Sundre near the Elks Hall, has included infrastructure removal (including the pumps and tanks), numerous environmental site assessments, remediation of PHCs (petroleum hydrocarbons), annual groundwater sampling, risk evaluation and monitoring well decommissioning, both in 2019.
“This site was a storage yard and the contaminants of concern throughout the environmental work at this site were the former underground fuel tanks and dispensers,” said LeMay.
All monitoring wells at the site have been decommissioned and the property is saleable with caveat, she said.
“This site will qualify for a remediation certificate,” she said.
Historical site work at the Didsbury operational service site has included several environmental site assessments, removal of underground storage tanks, removal of PHC soil (61 cubic metres), and annual/bi-annual groundwater sampling.
Historical site work at the Didsbury salt yard has included ground water sampling in 2019 and 2021.
Work planned at the site for 2022 includes decommissioning and replacing one damaged well, repairing and cleaning out site drain, and evaluating offsite receptors and potential migration offsite.
“We have four groundwater monitoring wells at the site,” she said.
Historical site work at the Carstairs site included groundwater sampling in 2020 and 2021.
Plans for 2022 include assessing monitoring well conditions/repairs as needed, groundwater sampling for PHCs, additional site assessment for PHCs, and continued localized in-well remediation.
“Essentially conditions are relatively stable there,” she said.
Historical site work at the Olds site, which was used as a road salt storage yard, has included groundwater sampling in 2016, well repairs and decommissions of damaged wells.
Plans for 2022 include proposed sampling of all groundwater monitoring wells.
The complete sites report is available for viewing on the county’s website.
