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SYDNEY TAR PONDS

SYDNEY TAR PONDS
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PROJECT SPOTLIGHT HIGHLIGHTS: DESCRIPTION: Large scale rehabilitation of contaminated urban site LOCATION: Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia CLIENT: Nordlys Environmental, LP (ECC and Zutphen Construction joint venture) PROJECT TIMELINE: October 2009 - 2012 SERVICES PROVIDED: • Mix design optimization • Testing CONSULTANCY: Process planning, logistics MATERIALS SUPPLIED: 70,000 MT GU cement Building better cities7 A CENTURY OF TOXIC RUN-OFF FROM STEEL INDUSTRY CREATED THE MOST TOXIC HAZARDOUS WASTE SITE IN NORTH AMERICA Nearly a century of steel and coke production on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, left behind over a million tonnes of contaminated soil and sediment in the Sydney Tar Ponds. The contaminants included heavy metals, PAHs and 3.8 tonnes of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Experts called the Sydney Tar Ponds the most toxic hazardous waste site in North America. Local residents agreed, the toxic ponds lay within the boundaries of a city with 25,000 inhabitants, who had been smelling the odours and living with the health consequences. IT WOULD BE THE MOST COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP EVER UNDERTAKEN IN CANADA A comprehensive environmental site assessment revealed that it was too risky to move the contaminated material. An attempt at low-temperature incineration proved ineffective and costly, and was abandoned. Solidification and Stabilization (S/S) with cement was determined to be the best way to contain the contaminated material. However, the process would not be simple. It would be the most complex environmental cleanup ever undertaken in this country.

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Lafarge worked with the Cement Association of Canada to help Nordlys Environmental, LP, submit the winning bid for the S/S contract for over 700,000 cubic meters of impacted sediment. Lafarge’s portland cement was selected as the binder to encapsulate and stabilize the waste. The challenges began. HOW DO YOU EXECUTE A MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP IN THE MIDDLE OF A CITY? Lafarge engineers and consultants were active in the two-and-a-half years of extensive discovery, testing and optimization to develop a comprehensive plan. The logistics of undertaking a major environmental cleanup within a...

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