NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Dehcho Region, South Slave Region

Tags: contaminants, environmental assessment, mining, site remediation

Objective(s): The overall objective of the Phase I ESA is to identify and document any actual or potential environmental risks associated with the subject properties and provide recommendations for further assessment and/or risk management.

Project Description: The overall objective of the Phase I ESA is to identify and document any actual or potential environmental risks associated with the subject properties and provide recommendations for further assessment and/or risk management. The two main goals needed to meet the objective are: 1) Produce a Records Review Report of existing site information; components of the records review will be to identify areas of environmental concern, areas of potential environmental concern and potential contaminants of concern. Some examples of records to be reviewed are: aerial photos, contaminated site and property-use registries, and review company records and geological/geotechnical reports. 2) Conduct a Site investigation to identify and document potential and actual environmental impacts to soil, sediment, surface water and groundwater, document physical hazards, hazardous and non-hazardous waste and identify relevant site conditions. The study has an interview component in which parties which may have had experiences with the subject properties will be contacted via. phone or email and asked to share any knowledge they have about the subject properties regarding environmental issues. This is done to corroborate information gained through research of written records. Each interview will have a written summary record of all question asked and the responses with the contact information. Interviews will be in the appendix of the report and the interviews may include, but are not limited to: • Land Use inspectors and Land Use boards, • Chamber of Mines, mines inspectors, NWT Mining Heritage Society • Prospectors, personnel formerly from the companies who worked at the site, Hunters and Trappers Association, DIAND District Geologists, DIAND Water Resources, Mining Recorder, and Environmental personnel; • Aviation companies, individuals, companies or others that have knowledge of the land and access to it. These interviews are NOT Social Research, nor a Traditional Knowledge Study. These are simply technical questions to help guide the assessment work. There are no impacts for the interview participants, no use of personal information – all questions are related to the contaminated sites. The remainder of the study is based on data collection through visual means on site. Sites will be sketched, gps'd, and described in detail. There will be no sampling of any kind; crews will be staying on site for one day; the reason for site visit is to confirm information from written records. There will be opportunities for some local employment in the form of bear monitors. The information collected will be helpful for planning any future clean up of the contaminated sites, which will beneficial to the locals by removing potentially harmful waste from the environment and local food chain. The final report will be available to local governing bodies. The results will be compiled in a comprehensive report and presented to INAC to be made available to the public on request. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from August 29, 2009 to October 31, 2009. Yellowknife will be the base camp for the Rocher River site, while Fort Simpson will be the base camp for all others.