Domtar creosote plant dispute goes to Environmental Appeals Board

Contaminants in soil at a former Domtarcreosote plant in northeast Edmonton are properly contained, a company that owns the site argued Monday at an Environmental Appeals Board hearing.

Cherokee Canada, DomtarInc. and 1510837 Alberta Ltd.are fighting seven orders issued in 2016 by Alberta Environment and Parks for the clean-up of a site at 44th Street and 127thAvenue inHermitage.

The site was home to a wood treatment plant that operated from 1924 until 1987.The numbered company purchased the site from Domtar in 2010. Cherokeeis developing the site for residential use.

Homes have already been built in theVerteHomesteader neighbourhood, which sits on the western edge of the site.

Cherokee presented arguments at the hearing Monday.

"We think [the orders are] excessive, and the reason we've appealed them is that we disagree with them," John Dill, Cherokee's managing partner, said in an interview.

Cherokee argues that removingcontaminated soil from the brownfield site would cost about $68 million and would not be viable.

"We would have never undertaken this if there was any possibility that we would be obligated to provide a 'dig and dump,'" Dill said.

Domtar will present its own arguments to the three-member panel on Tuesday.The City of Edmonton, which owns a green belt area of land adjacent to the site, is intervening in the appeal and will present its case Wednesday.

• New orders issued to protect public near former Domtar site in northeast Edmonton
• 'Pretty nasty chemicals': Alberta orders cleanup at former creosote treatment plant in Edmonton

The 2016 orders came after dioxins and furans were found in soil sampled from uninhabited portions of the site north of Yellowhead Trail near Hermitage Road. Further orders were issued early in 2018.

The 2016 orders included additional environmental sampling, creating action plans to remove contamination, and conducting human health risk assessments.

Cherokee and the province are at odds over how to interpret the results of the tests, said Dill.

"The disagreement in our perspective is about the interpretation of the science, and which science should rule in terms of making key determinations," he said.

Cherokee claimed Mondaythat extensive testing has already taken place, and that the land is safe to develop.

Alberta Environment and Parks maintained in its opening statement that the orders were issued in compliance with the law, and that more remediation work is necessary.

Dill said Cherokee had a good relationship with Alberta Environment and Parks until 2014, when there was a change of staff within the department.

"A new group arrived and seemed to develop a completely different interpretation of everything we've done up to that point, and what we had proposed to go forward," said Dill.

The two sides disagree over a berm that was built on the site to contain contaminated soil.

Cherokee said the province approved the plan, but Alberta Environment and Parks claimsit never agreed to the concept.

Testing has indicated that topsoil in developed residential areasis not contaminated.

The hearing is scheduled to sit all week and again Sept. 12-14.