Concerns have been raised once more, this time on social media, related to the Hunters Bay Trail, the possibility of leaching coming from the remnants of the old tannery on the trail, and questions about the integrity of an environmental reserve created to deal with any contamination that surfaces.
During the 2024 budget deliberation, council agreed to reduce the Centre Street Environmental Reserve transfer and bring revenue from the INFRA PIPE Solutions property lease into general revenues in the amount of $444,096, in order to bring down the property tax increase.
Doppler reached out to Huntsville Mayor Nancy Alcock but she’s on vacation so Huntsville Deputy Mayor Dan Armour responded. He explained that the Environmental Reserve still contains a balance of $1.291 million and that during the 2024 budget deliberation, council also set aside an additional $60,000 from the same reserve for another Environmental Assessment (EA) on the property, which he said will hopefully take place sometime this year.
Armour noted that when the Town bought the property in 2020 for $1,000, it conducted an Environmental Assessment before agreeing to the purchase.
“We did our due diligence… we conducted testing and all that stuff and it’s been done multiple times [prior to the purchase] and there was nothing,” he said, adding that when the Town assumed the property it agreed that the money it would get for leasing it, would go into the Centre Street Environmental Reserve.
Photos were posted on the Facebook site If You Grew Up In Huntsville, You’ll Remember … of a coppery oily substance. Armour said that while he is not an expert, he said that same-looking substance has been talked about in the past and believes it is organic matter.
Photo of the material causing concern posted on the Facebook site, If You Grew Up In Huntsville, You’ll Remember …
“Over the past many years, we’ve had a lot of different passersby on the Hunters Bay Trail [wondering about] the substance that’s been seeping from the bank in the trail just down from INFRA PIPE. So testing was conducted and it was deemed not to be related to the adjacent lands and no reason for concern was ever noted,” said Armour. “I’m not an environmentalist or anything like that but I’ve done some research on my own, just to find out what I can, and it’s a natural organic reoccurring matter. So that bank freezes and all the leaves and all the organic matter that’s rotting under the ground has a lack of oxygen going to it and then you have your iron and all your metals and all that stuff are in the earth, so when it comes to spring, and you get your runoff on top, it picks up all this organic matter which comes down in an orangy, yellow oily substance.”
Armour said there is information on the old tannery lands that cannot be accessed at the moment due to the Town’s cyberattack but said that, based on long-time residents he has spoken to, he does believe vats associated with the tannery were buried on the lands adjacent to the water. “One thing I am aware of, when we built the new fire hall down there, because it’s on tannery property also, we couldn’t disturb the ground because of the possible contamination from the tannery. So we built a large pad and we put a piping system in that vented the ground through the roof,” he said, noting that there probably is toxic material buried from the tannery in the area. “And anybody I’ve spoken to who has any knowledge of the environment and toxic waste, and stuff like that… say you get into trouble when you start digging it up.”
Armour reiterated that the Town does have a reserve and a full assessment of the area is planned this year as per the $60,000 set aside for an Environmental Assessment in the 2024 budget. He said once the EA is completed, staff will return to council with a report.
Related
Council to consider purchase of former, likely contaminated, tannery property
Council moves forward with purchase of former KWH property, currently owned by Uponor
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There are many things about this land and the contamination there that need to be addressed as soon as possible. The 48 Concrete Vats that were built in the early nineteen fifties after the Bankruptcy of the Tannery. The Town of Huntsville took the lands back the Town of Huntsville maintains the liability from any contamination leachate. When the incredibly dangerous chemicals in Cadmium were placed in wooden barrels there was an incident and three men died at the scene. This is known history and then when the FIre Hall was proposed for the adjacent property , the three men doing the bore holes for testing also faced toxic fumes and were taken to hospital. They survived but the town was required to redesign the Fire Hall to address the inground toxins with a larger thicker concrete Pad and a specialized ventilations system. This is the truth, we have a love canal of chemicals buried there on that Property . Past Mayors McKenzie and Doughty are familiar and mentioned this site in there campaign for Mayor. I have seen the documents …Property owners are required to test and submit the tests to the town annually. according to these Mayors .. Happy to see it fact checked
I walked past the area where that picture was taken a couple of months ago and saw the same thing.
It brought back a memory of when I was fortunate enough to be a camper at Tawingo in the mid ’60’s. We were setting out on a canoe trip to Golden Pheasant (an abandoned driving range then). Anyway, we stopped our canoes at roughly the same spot to collect firewood. There were huge piles of slabwood pushed right to the waters edge. We loaded a bunch of that wood in the canoe and continued on our way.
I tend to agree that what we’re seeing today is organic from all that wood waste.
Of course the vats are a concern, but lets leave that to the experts.
And yes, I guess we had a good campfire that night!
The photo seems to show water with the same appearance as I have on my property . I had Drew Brennan from the Ministry of the Environment assess and he reported it was ionized water and there was no need for concern .
It sounds to me like the town has things under control in this situation. Thanks for the detailed response Mr. Armour.