Hawkesbury could finally get its polluted CIP plant site cleaned up and redeveloped after two decades of shameful neglect, says the MPP for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell.
Jean-Marc Lalonde says the Ontario government has hired an engineer to determine exactly what must be done to clean the site and that report will be in by March. His hope is that would be followed by a cleanup project led by the federal and provincial governments.
The CIP site cleanup is one of the ideas coming up at candidates’ meetings in the current federal election in Glengarry-Prescott-Russell. Liberal candidate Rene Berthiaume says the site, on the Ottawa River close to the town’s Main Street on the west end of town, should be cleaned up so it can become one of the places where city-weary people go to enjoy quiet natural beauty of the riding. Mr. Berthiaume, running to succeed Don Boudria as Liberal MP, believes ecotourism is one of the keys to the riding’s future.
Canadian International Paper closed its Hawkesbury plant in 1982. The old mill buildings were torn down, but the seriously polluted site—which has a sealed lagoon where materials, including wood fibre waste, were dumped—has never been cleaned up. There’s also a 8.1-hectare piece next to the CIP site owned by the provincial government.
Mr. Lalonde says it’s been one of his great political frustrations that there’s been no progress on a waterfront piece of property that could become a public attraction and boost Hawkesbury’s business district.
He got Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay to tour the site last year, which resulted in a $280,000 engineering study of the problem being commissioned. The study will identify what has to be done, then the federal and provincial governments could jointly pay for the cleanup or get a developer to take on the project. The estimates of what it would cost have ranged from $4 million to $80 million.
“It’s really an eyesore for the town,” said Mr. Lalonde, who wants to see a park on the site to help the community’s tourism business and provide a waterfront recreation area for town citizens. “It’s a beautiful location.”
The history of the site is quite mysterious. The paper company left town and a foreign businessman ended up owning the land. Taxes haven’t been paid on the land for about 10 years and the municipality recently put the property, about 56.2 hectares, up for sale, said Hawkesbury Councillor Gilles Tessier.
Mr. Tessier said the pollution at the CIP site has been a major irritant since the 1980s, when the plant was closed and 400 jobs lost.
“Sometimes when the wind’s from the northwest, I can smell it,” said Mr. Tessier, who lives across town from the former mill. “It’s about time that something gets done about it.”
“I don’t know what the guys were putting in that wet lagoon, but over the years, everything has settled down. The smell that comes out is unbearable,” said Mr. Tessier.
Mr. Tessier said that if the property is decontaminated, it would be a choice location for a housing development because waterfront properties are so scarce. “If it’s anything that brings taxes to the town, all the better for us,” he said.