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Posted Jun 22, 2011, 2:07 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2010
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discussion of the contamination issue (Red Herring?) from the Citizen: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/mobile/...879/story.html
Quote:
Hintonburg ground contaminated, land assessor says
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
By JOANNE CHIANELLO, The Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — A groundwater contamination issue raised by a developer has upset the community association in Hintonburg, but the company’s environmental consultant said it is flagging a legitimate problem in the neighbourhood.
Tega Homes wants to construct a two-building, L-shaped development that would comprise almost an entire city block bounded by Parkdale Avenue, Armstrong Street, Hamilton Avenue North and Spencer Avenue. One of the buildings being proposed is a 36-storey condo tower, which, if it went ahead, would make it the tallest residential structure in Ottawa.
It’s long been known that the site has deep contamination from old industrial activity at a former Honeywell manufacturing plant. With the oversight of the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Honeywell has been cleaning up the property.
But for a residential development to move ahead on the site, the pace of the cleanup will have to speed up. That will cost an estimated $12 million, half of which could be covered by a city brownfield-remediation program. To cover the additional $6 million that Tega would have to shell out, the developer wants the city to allow it to build 50 per cent more than is allowed. In other words, instead of being able to build 200,000 square feet, as the zoning currently permits, Tega wants to build 300,000 square feet.
“This (contamination) has never been an issue in the community before it was raised by Tega as a crisis,” said Jay Baltz, of the Hintonburg Community Association. “Instead of talking about the fact they (Tega) want an increase in zoning, what they did was go out and hire a PR firm to spread information that they had to have a much bigger building or else this contamination was going to ruin the neighbourhood.”
Some Hintonburg residents are disturbed by the discussion about how the contamination has spread to neighbouring areas, as far as a block away. A 2005 Honeywell report shows contamination has spread beyond its site, at levels 1,000 times less than the worst-affected parts of the Honeywell site, but still above Ministry of Environment guidelines.
Some involved with the proposed development have suggested that homeowners could have trouble refinancing or selling their homes if the contamination isn’t cleaned up.
Jeff Polowin, a lobbyist with Hill and Knowlton who has been hired by Tega to help with the project, has mentioned the possibility of financial problems for homeowners in the vicinity due to the contamination plume.
But in an interview Monday, Polowin said he was simply passing along information that he heard from Paterson Group, the consulting engineers who prepared a report for Tega outlining what it would cost to clean up the site for development.
Although the memorandum that Paterson Group wrote for Tega — a copy of which was obtained by the Citizen — does not mention the effects of the contamination plume to outlining areas, its author, Carlos DaSilva, did not shy away from giving his opinion on the matter.
“What happens if you’re going to buy a property in that area ... and your property has contamination under it, but there’s a property down the street that doesn’t have it? Which one would you pay full value for? Would you pay full value for the one that has impact underneath? Wouldn’t you be a little concerned? I know I would, personally,” said DaSilva, in an interview Monday.
“And so, is there a diminution of property value when it’s impacted underneath? I would say there is.”
Hintonburg is one of the hottest real estate markets in the city, where homes are bought and sold quickly, and any question of deep contamination has not been an issue.
“(That’s) because they haven’t opened up that can of worms yet,” DaSilva said. “I’m not a lawyer, I’m not a realtor. I’m just giving you an opinion based on 30 years of experience with environmental projects.”
Hintonburg Community Association members say those statements amount to fear-mongering, meant to win over community support for a large development.
But DaSilva stood firm: “I don’t think that’s fear-mongering. Would you want to buy a house there? Would you pay full pop for it?”
Kitchissippi Councillor Katherine Hobbs said she can’t remember telling anyone that their property value is a risk due to the contamination. But in an e-mail exchange with a Hintonburg resident who accused her of doing just that, Hobbs responded that she was “merely passing on information received from a consultant’s report. Major environmental contamination can be a factor in these financial matters, and felt it important to share with residents that could be effected (sic).”
Hobbs told the Citizen she is not in favour of the development and that it is not appropriate for the site. But even though Tega has not submitted an application for the project to the city yet, Hobbs added that she feels compelled to deal with the issue of the contamination now that it has been raised publicly.
“My concern about this site is that there is a level of deepwater contamination,” she said in an interview. “It is horrific. These are cancer-causing agents. I have no idea what this means, environment-wise, health-wise; these are questions I would like to get answered right now.”
In fact, the Ministry of Environment told the Citizen that, in conjunction with Honeywell, it has been monitoring the site for the past 11 years. “There is no risk to human health or air quality for the community,” said ministry spokeswoman Kate Jordan.
Although most community members believe Hobbs is well-intentioned, they fear that voicing her worries — coupled with the environmental engineer’s comments about property values — “will cause people to be very concerned,” said Linda Hoad, who, among other things, chairs the Hintonburg Community Association’s zoning committee. “It’s irresponsible to say that the contamination is possibly endangering people, unless you have proof.”
No one disputes that the site is contaminated.
Honeywell ran a light industrial manufacturing plant at 3 Hamilton Ave. N. from the mid-1940s until 2000, when the property was sold for $825,000 to a property-holding company. (Tega, the developer, does not own any of the properties in question.) The deeper bedrock and groundwater under the site is contaminated with VOCs — volatile organic compounds — including some known or suspected human carcinogens, that came mostly from solvents used at the former aeronautics plant.
According to the Ministry of the Environment, Honeywell is responsible for cleaning up the property. The international conglomerate monitors the site and in 2008, installed a shallow groundwater treatment system on the property. Air-quality tests have been conducted that found no evidence of risk to humans or the environment, Jordan said. The company continues to report to the ministry regularly.
This summer, Honeywell plans to study how it can address contamination in the deeper bedrock and groundwater.
“Based all the information and all the reports that they submitted to us, we don’t have any concerns for impacts to human health or air quality,” Jordan said. “Their work continues to this day.”
She said that if a more “sensitive” use for the site is proposed, like a residential building, other measures would likely need to be taken and certainly approved by the ministry. “But we haven’t been approached by the new owners of the site in terms of any plans for development of it,” Jordan said.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
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