Dredge tainted sludge in Thunder Bay harbour, report says

A new report recommends mercury-laced sedimentshould be dredged from Thunder Bay's harbour and taken to aconfined disposal facility.

"The studies done on the sediment say that there is some ecological and human health risk in terms of leaving the mercury contamination in place," saidEllenMortfield,executive director ofEcoSuperior, the organizationco-ordinatingthe investigation into how to deal with the submerged wood waste from a former paper mill on the city's waterfront.

The recommendation from Cole Engineering Group Ltd. of Markham, Ont.,is to dredge the sediment, put iton barges, and move it to an existing confined disposal facility atMission Island. The estimated cost of the job is $44.4 million.

"We're talking about 22-hectares of the lakefront the underwater portion and there's up to 400,000 cubic metres of contaminated sediment," Mortfield continued.

"It's not like dirt on the bottom. It's layers and layers of thick, pulpy, mushy material. It's up to four-metres thick in places."

Mortfield said EcoSuperior is looking for public input on the proposal.

The full report can be found on the EcoSuperior website. The organization is also planning an open house on the issue, for later this fall.