Randle Reef is an area of highly contaminated sediment located on the south shore of Hamilton Harbour in the western end of Lake Ontario, and is considered to be the largest and one of the more complex and highly contaminated sediment sites in the Great Lakes.

The Randle Reef Contaminated Sediment Remediation Project involves the construction of a 6.2 ha engineered containment facility over the most highly contaminated sediment, dredging and placement of additional contaminated sediment within the facility, and in situ capping and isolation of remaining targeted sediment for a grand total of 695,000 m3 of sediment being managed. Construction began in September 2015. Environment and Climate Change Canada is leading the project with the $138.9 million cost of the project being equally shared by Canada, Ontario and the local community – the cities of Hamilton and Burlington, Halton Region, the Hamilton Port Authority and Stelco.

Owing to the long history of contamination (more than 150 years) from multiple sources, it was not possible to apply the polluter pay principle to remediate the site. Instead, a shared responsibility model was adopted with the Government of Canada, Government of Ontario and the local community participating equally in the design and implementation of a solution. This legacy site is a priority for remediation under the Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the Canada-Ontario Agreement on Great Lakes Water Quality and Ecosystem Health and in the local community’s plans to transform from a city dominated by heavy industry to a cutting edge knowledge economy with a clean and vibrant waterfront.

In this presentation, representatives from Environment and Climate Change Canada and the City of Hamilton will share their perspectives on the evolution of the project and its funding framework, challenges and importance of the Randle Reef Contaminated Sediment Remediation Project.

The Randle Reef Sediment Remediation Project is the planned clean up of a severely contaminated portion of Hamilton Harbour in Lake Ontario. Randle Reef is the largest PAH contaminated sediment site (695,000 m3) on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes and the clean-up project consists of the construction of an engineered containment facility (ECF) as well as the dredging and placement of contaminated sediment from outside the facility into the ECF. The project consists of three stages:
• Construction of the ECF;
• Dredging of the contaminated sediment outside the ECF and placement within; and,
• Capping of the ECF.

The concept for the Randle Reef Sediment Remediation Project was developed in 2003 and incremental design work and consultation was completed over the following years. Funding and partnership agreements for the project were established in 2013. Funding for the $138.9 million project is provided by multiple parties including Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, the Hamilton Port Authority, US Steel Canada, the cities of Hamilton and Burlington and the Region of Halton.

In July 2015, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) tendered and awarded the Stage 1 ECF construction contract. A service contract was also awarded in July 2015 for Stage 1 construction, contract administration and resident site services. In June 2017, PSPC tendered and awarded the Stage 2 dredging contract.

Stage 1 site work began at Randle Reef in April 2016 following the mobilization of marine equipment from Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia, and the delivery of steel sheet piles (SSP) from Iuka, Mississippi. Construction of the first half of the ECF, consisting of driving a double SSP wall and dredging and backfilling between the walls, was completed on schedule in December 2016. Despite record high water levels on Lake Ontario in 2017, SSP installation, dredging and backfilling of the second half of the ECF was completed on schedule in December 2017. Final sealing of the inner anchor wall will be completed in the spring of 2018.

Stage 2 site preparation began in the fall of 2017, with equipment mobilization expected in late winter and spring of 2018. Dredging is scheduled to begin in May 2018.

This presentation will provide background on the Randle Reef Sediment Remediation Project, and report on the progress and status of the Stage 1 and Stage 2 construction and dredging projects.

The potential for adverse effects on amphibians from exposure to anthropogenic contaminants has received greater attention in recent years due to global declines in amphibian populations. Although comprehensive ecotoxicology reviews of amphibians have been published, amphibians have often been excluded from federal ecological risk assessments because information is either not available or not easily accessible. In order to facilitate risk assessments for amphibians, the Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan (FCSAP) has developed a technical guidance module on amphibian ecological risk assessment (Module 6).

The intent of this technical guidance module is to help risk assessors determine how to assess amphibians at federal contaminated sites. FCSAP has provided guidance for ecological risk assessment that promotes applying a comprehensive weight of evidence approach to assess risk from contaminants to all receptors, including amphibians. Risk at federal contaminated sites can be assessed by using one or more of the following four different categories of lines of evidence (FCSAP 2012a): 1) site-specific toxicological evidence; 2) indirect toxicological evidence (e.g., literature-based toxicity data); 3) site-specific biological evidence (e.g., field studies at the site of interest); or, 4) indirect biological evidence (e.g., biological field studies reported in the scientific literature). For site-specific toxicological evidence, standard toxicity methods for amphibians are provided in the guidance module. For indirect toxicological evidence, amphibian toxicity concentration-response data have been compiled for metals that are particularly toxic to amphibians according to the literature. In the guidance document, the toxicity data covering multiple endpoints is illustrated as multi-study concentration-response graphs. This allows the risk assessor to go beyond point-estimate based hazard quotients and evaluate risk in the context of effect magnitude and uncertainty across a range of concentrations present at federal contaminated sites. For site-specific and indirect biological evidence, case studies on amphibians are provided in the guidance document.

Passive sampling devices (PSDs) bind chemicals from environmental media (i.e., air, water and sediment pore water) and provide assessments of the freely dissolved and biologically available contaminants in that media. The use of PSDs for monitoring concentrations of contaminants in surface waters may offer a number of advantages over conventional point/grab sampling as they measure contaminants over extended periods providing time-integrated concentrations (smoother average of exposures), and measure contaminants in very low concentrations normally below single, small-volume-sample detection limits. PSDs can also act as biological surrogates, reducing the need for lethal sampling of living organisms, and determining the bioavailability of contaminants that may fluctuate over time, which is critical in accurately estimating exposure for risk assessments.

Point Pelee National Park (PPNP) is located on the most southern tip of Ontario and Canada, consisting of a 15-kilometre peninsula of land extending south of the Municipality of Leamington, comprised of marsh and woodland habitat that extends into Lake Erie. The park provides habitat critical for hundreds of species of migrating birds and insects including over 53 species at risk. The contaminants of potential concern in the Park are associated with the past pesticide use (mainly DDT, dieldrin and lead arsenate) from the late 1940s to early 1970s, as wells as contaminants from former on-site anthropogenic activities including roads, buildings, and landfills, which include metals, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

PPNP had minimal existing aquatic environmental contaminant data for the marsh portion of the park. With an objective to maintain the lowest disturbance to the park ecosystem, ongoing management questions around historical DDT spraying in the area could be monitored and answered through the use of PSDs. To examine these contaminants in surface waters, three different PSDs were employed: semi-permeable membrane device samplers (SPMDs) to measure PAHs, PCBs, and chlorinated pesticides; polar organic compounds integrated samplers (POCIS) for polar pesticides; and diffusive gradient in thin film samplers (DGTs) for metals. The PSDs were housed in metal cages, and deployed for 30 days at ten sites across the marsh to monitor contaminants both temporally and spatially. Surface water and surface sediment grab samples, as well as fish samples were also collected at sample sites during PSD retrieval and analyzed for the same suite of contaminants to allow for cross comparison.

Results will be presented and discussed, and will be subsequently used to support the completion of a site specific risk assessment and the development of a risk management strategy for the understanding of potential risks associated with PPNP. The research also aims to assess the potential value of passive sampling approaches to provide high-quality contaminant data to effectively and efficiently assess, manage and monitor sites (in a minimally invasive method) while progressing toward site closure.