Toronto’s Largest Brownfield Cleanup is Underway

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Recently, Build Toronto announced that more environmental professionals were hired to continue one of the largest brownfield cleanup projects in the city’s history.

Approximately 20 acres are city-owned portions of a 49-acre site on the Quarry Lands at Victoria Park Avenue and Gerrard Street East that will likely be the first to break ground on a new development project that plans to accommodate the influx of home buyers in the area by offering a mix of townhomes and retail.

While developers, residents, city planners and even experts at the Ministry of Environment engaged in frustrating discussions since the 1950s, uncovering complications at every turn, the site has collected wildlife critters and grassy weeds that don’t mind burning gases coming from nearby burning flare stacks. It’s no secret that the site will require extensive work before construction can get started, but some wonder if regular clean-up protocols will suffice in this particular instance. The site has already seen soil “fills” where fresh, soil has been introduced to the area to eliminate or lower contamination levels, but with little success.

“A number of borrow pits (soil taken for infill elsewhere) have been excavated and subsequently in-filled using imported materials over the past century,” said Don Logie, senior vice-president, development, Build Toronto. “Additional fills have also been placed over nearly the entirety of the property to raise the overall grade. These present both geotechnical challenges related to relatively poor bearing capacities on loosely-placed fill, as well as environmental challenges related to the environmental quality of the materials used as backfill. In addition, the site is crisscrossed by major trunk utilities which, for the most part, cannot be moved.”

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This project presents a unique situation, one which Build Toronto lacks previous experience with, despite owning a 24-acre industrial brownfield property in Etobicoke at 260 Eighth Street. Regardless, representatives at Build Toronto remain positive, assuring residents of the area that the company has hired environmental engineering and geosciences consultant Terrapex Environmental Ltd. to handle the environmental assessment process and will be working alongside the Ontario Ministry of Environment to complete the Record of Site Condition.

So far, the project seems to be advancing gradually, with precautions being taken to avoid exposing groundwater to potentially contaminated soil. Learning from previous experiences throughout the GTA, best practices are being implemented in order to make headway, but this will surely be a lengthy process; it could still be another three to four years before we see real movement. With soil remediation underway, developers are keeping busy with the early stages of planning being due for submission to the Scarborough council with regards to matters concerning density, traffic and sewer impact studies.