City official says level of soil contamination unexpectedly high
John Bermingham
Province
Architect Graham McGarva’s design for the athletes’ village in southeast False Creek in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
The City of Vancouver is going deeper in the hole when it comes to cleaning up the site of the 2010 athletes’ village on the south side of False Creek.
City councillors were told yesterday that the estimated cleanup cost for the 20-hectare southeast False Creek site — which includes the six-hectare Olympic village — has tripled to more than $30 million in two years.
Kenneth Bayne, the city’s director of financial planning, said early excavation has uncovered much more contaminated soil than was previously thought.
“When you start to dig, you find things you don’t know about,” Bayne said outside council yesterday.
“We found much more extensive contaminants than we had anticipated, and the costs have gone up. The costs are significantly higher than anticipated.”
Bayne said the earlier estimate was based on test drill-holes. But when builders dug into the soil, they discovered there was a bigger volume of contaminated soil.
The city plans to take the soil to the landfill, which will keep some costs down.
It will be used for covering solid waste, he said.
But Bayne said if the soil contamination gets worse, it could be taken to dumping sites out of the province, which will push the costs even higher.
The city owns the 20-hectare site, but has recently sold a large parcel to Vancouver developer Millennium SEFC Properties. That parcel includes the Olympic village.
As part of the deal, the city has agreed to pay all the cleanup costs for the site.
Back in early 2004, Bayne said the estimate for cleanup was $8.5 million.
Since then, however, “we’ve had an inflation in the cost of remediating, and also an increase in the extent of the contamination that has to be dealt with,” he said.
Bayne said soil cleanup on the village site will start when excavation begins in January.
“I don’t want to be an alarmist,” said Bayne. “We’re not talking of soil that’s a significant risk.
“But the standards for residential communities are higher.”
An environmental report that was presented to council in 2005 said the soil is contaminated with metals and hydrocarbons.
It includes minerals in the soil, wood waste and such debris as glass shards, metal fragments, rags, masonry and ash.
The southeast False Creek site has been used for industrial purposes going back to the late 1800s.
It’s been used for sawmills, shipbuilding, metal workshops, salt distribution and warehousing.
It’s most recently been the city’s public-works yard.
© The Vancouver Province 2006