Sydney radar station may be returned to New Dawn Enterprises by year's end

Community group New Dawn bought former radar station in 1990s

Image | li-ns-radar-sydney

Caption: The Department of National Defence says environmental cleanup at former CFB Sydney is nearly done. (CBC)

An environmental cleanup at former CFB Sydney appears to be finally drawing to a close.
The former radar station was purchased by community group New Dawn Enterprises in the 1990s. Plans for the property have included affordable housing, a long-term care facility and recreation uses.
But in 2004, oil was found leaking in the soil from underground storage tanks. The Department of National Defence started a remediation of the site in 2010.
New Dawn president Rankin MacSween says there are three wells on the site to monitor the situation.
"There's a couple of spots in that area that they are still trying to get a clean bill of health on but they're confident they're pretty close."
MacSween says before the site is returned to New Dawn, he would like to see an assessment of the entire site.
"Given what happened and given the size of the site, the board certainly wants to make sure that everything is the way that it should be."
In an email, a DND spokesperson said that with the exception of three monitoring wells, "the remediation has been completed to the satisfaction of the provincial environment department.
MacSween said he expects the site will be returned to New Dawn by the end of the year.