All contaminated sediment at Randle Reef has been removed or capped, feds and province say

Crews have finished the dredging of Randle Reef, a major step in the effort to clean up the most contaminated site on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes.

Federal, provincial and city government reps announced Wednesday that stage two of the three-part, $139-million project is finished. That means all of the toxic coal-tar sediment has been removed from the water or capped inside a double-steel container.

The federal government says that's more than 615,000 cubic metres of sediment — enough to fill a hockey rink three times over. The contamination dates back to the 1800s.

Filomena Tassi, Liberal MP for Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas and minister of public service and procurement, deemed this a "milestone."

"Hamilton Harbour is now a cleaner and safer place for people and wildlife, and will provide new opportunities for socio-economic development in the community," she said.

Randle Reef is a big part of Hamilton Harbour being listed as an area of concern under the Canada–United States Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The announcement Wednesday takes Hamilton a step closer to de-listing, said Chad Collins, a city councillor-turned-Liberal MP for Hamilton East-Stoney Creek.

Stage one of the Randle Reef project involved building a steel container with a lifespan of 200 years just off the coast of Hamilton's industrial area. Stage two involved using a sort of underwater vacuum cleaner to dredge the industrial waste and deposit it in the container.

Stage three is due to begin this fall and finish in 2024. That involves removing and treating the remaining water from the container before releasing it back into the harbour and the installing the final capping of the container. 

Chris McLaughlin, executive director of the Bay Area Restoration Council (BARC), said his organization has always supported the project.

"It's a terrific milestone in its implementation," he said. "The fact that all of that contaminated material now has been stored up in the giant steel box is a tremendous accomplishment. One that the whole community can be very proud of."

McLaughlin said that stage two was the "critically important" part of the project. 

"The rest of it is now like a technicality, is just sort of putting the roof on. The important stage was building the walls, and getting that material out of the environment and into the steel box."

The Randle Reef project is a joint initiative involving the federal and provincial governments, the City of Hamilton, Halton Region, City of Burlington, the Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority, and Stelco.