PHCHCC - History of Contamination

HISTORY OF CONTAMINATION

"Contamination was discovered in hundreds of locations including private homes
and yards, the municipal landfill, roadbeds, ravines, the public beach and harbour..."

Contaminated soil originally from the west beach area of Port Hope was remediated to the towns centre pier in the fall of 2002. The West Beach was a beach were families walked, swam and built sand castles. NO SIGNS were posted warning them of the danger!

One of the many mounds of Low Level Waste in Port Hope, Ontario

The community of Port Hope, Ontario, Canada is an attractive town with approximately 13.500 residents situated on the north shore of Lake Ontario, 100 kilometers east of Toronto. For more than 60 years the town the community has been the site of a waterfront refinery for production of radium and uranium.

The refinery operated as the Crown Corporation Eldorado Nuclear Ltd. from about 1944 to 1988 when it was privatized and became Cameco Corporation. The refinery continues to operate today on Port Hope's waterfront and is regulated by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission; a federal agency.

In the mid 1970s information about the degree of contamination from the refinery throughout the community began to emerge. Gradually it was learned that obsolete buildings and equipment as well as waste products from production which contained uranium, radium, their radioactive decay products, as well as various heavy metals, had been disposed of or used in construction activities around the town over the years. Contamination was discovered in hundreds of locations including private homes and yards, the municipal landfill, roadbeds, ravines, the public beach and harbour.

From 1977 to 1981 major remedial action was carried out by the former Atomic Energy Control Board ( now called the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission), the federal regulatory body formed in 1946 to oversee activities related to uranium. During this period approximately 200,000 tons of radioactive soil and building materials were transported to Chalk River from residential, commercial and public properties in Port Hope. (1) In 1982 the Office of Low Level Radioactive Waste Management was created by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. , through an agreement with Natural Resources Canada to manage wastes for which the federal government has assumed responsibility in Port Hope and several other communities. An office was opened in Port Hope and continues its oversight function today. Since its creation, the Office has undertaken extensive remediation work in town but has had to perform a number of activities on an interim basis because there is no permanent site for the wastes.

Current estimates are that 3.5 million cubic meters of waste still remain within town boundaries and another 872,000 cubic meters lie in the area immediately west of Port Hope at Welcome and Port Granby, awaiting a disposal solution.(2) In addition studies released by Ontario's Ministry of the Environment and Energy ( 1991) and the Office of Low Level Radioactive Waste Management (1995) confirm further contamination
has occurred over the years within the town from airborne deposition of uranium, arsenic, fluoride, among other toxic chemicals, emitted from the refinery operations. (3)