Editorial: Randle Reef quagmire

[Spiel]

Randle Reef quagmire

 

 

Feb 18, 2010

Howard Elliott / The Hamilton Spectator

 

 

It's not appropriate to curse in a family newspaper, but if it was, we'd hurl a big dose of invective at the government stakeholders in the Randle Reef cleanup project.

 

As recently as 2007, news of provincial and federal contributions totalling $60 million, optimism around environmental assessment work and clear dates for work actually commencing made this one of the good news stories of the decade. Most of that optimism is now squandered, lost to bureaucratic wrangling for position, and to some extent to the apparent inability of Hamilton officials to come up with their share of the cost, estimated at $30 million to $35 million.

 

Two more years are lost, while the toxic mass of industrial chemicals continues to spread and disperse, making the area around the reef literally deadly to any form of life, and having who-knows-what kind of impact on the harbour and even Lake Ontario overall.

 

There is a plan, admittedly imperfect, to build a wall around the most contaminated part of the reef, located near U.S. Steel's plant, formerly Stelco. Then material dredged from other areas would be added, capped, and the resulting structure used to develop two new piers for the Hamilton Port Authority. So (here's where the anti-cussing rule hurts): What is taking so long?

 

Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger says the city has $5 million available towards the local slice of the cleanup cost. The port authority has said it has $6 million. There is, apparently, some private-sector partner who will shoulder some of the remaining local cost. So, it seems that coming up with most or all of the local contribution isn't an insurmountable challenge.

 

Another stumbling block seems to be the question of who's in charge. The port authority has passed on a leadership role, and Hamilton wants the federal public works department to wear that mantle. This makes sense, given Public Works Canada's on-the-ground experience dealing with the Sydney, N.S., tar ponds.

 

Fine. Let's get Public Works at the helm. Let's go all out to find the share of the local part of cost. Most important, let's inject a sense of urgency into the cleanup of Randle Reef.

 

Had work started a couple of years ago, this could have been completed for the Pan Am Games in 2015. That won't happen now. Let's not compound that missed opportunity by further dithering.

 

It seems obvious that this should be an urgent priority, that all levels of government should be eager to sit down at the table to start making measurable progress on dealing with this long-standing environmental hazard and embarrassment. But that's not happening, which is leading other stakeholders, such as the Bay Area Restoration Council, to call for citizens to start applying pressure on government agencies. Fair enough, if that's what it takes. Start phoning and e-mailing local MPs and MPPs, especially those in government. Do the same with city council. Tell them to get off their butts and finally take action to fix the worst environmental hot spot in the Great Lakes. The lack of progress to date has gone beyond being unfortunate to being offensive.

 

Editorials are written by members of the editorial board. They represent the position of the newspaper, not necessarily the individual author.