Client: Province of Ontario, as represented by Ontario Realty Corporation
Location: Toronto, Ontario
KCL was retained to prepare an Environmental Management Strategy/Action Plan (EMP) for an 80-acre (32-hectare) land assembly of former industrial land covering eleven city blocks. The land assembly is located near the Don River and the Gardiner Expressway in an area planned originally for redevelopment for the Ataratiri housing development. The area has been renamed West Don Lands and is planned for a mixture of residential and commercial land use.
The preparation of the EMP was challenging for several reasons. Current land use included one operating scrap-yard (planned for closure) with concerns for elevated levels of PCBs in soil and another scrap-yard with soil containing low-level radioactive impact. The land assembly involved a derelict, under-used industrial and commercial area. Industries that operated over the past 100 years and the placement of mildly contaminated fill have resulted in impact to the soil. Groundwater at West Don Lands is not a source of groundwater impact by various compounds, except for three areas: a block where a coal tar gasification plant was located, a block in the southeast corner and a few isolated areas across the land assembly where it is suspected that underground storage tanks have leaked.
Kleinfeldt Consultants Limited's scope of work included defining the work necessary to facilitate removal of the 'h' holding designation on the lands and prescribing a management framework by which this change in land use designation may be achieved by the City of Toronto. The EMP made recommendations for short-term and long-term actions in order to develop the lands incrementally throughout the site.
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