Today, XCG Consultants have provided the conclusions of the peer review it carried out of the Environmental Site Assessments of Lansdowne Park that will be considered for the first time by Ottawa City Council tomorrow.

The Site Assessments were carried out earlier this year by AMEC Earth and Environmental for the City of Ottawa, but were not made public until after Council had given key approvals for the redevelopment of Lansdowne Park.

A detailed peer review by XCG will be released tomorrow, but key conclusions of that review are described in a letter from the firm that is being made public this afternoon. These reveal that:

• While the AMEC report identifies significant areas of contamination on the Lansdowne Site, including by heavy metals and other hazardous and toxic substances, significant areas of potential contamination have yet to be properly investigated;
• no estimate of the costs required to remediate the site have been provided, but these could be in the order of $20 million depending on the approach taken;
• no remediation plan has been provided by City staff, who propose that difficult judgements about costs and risks, including those to public health, be left to staff to decide at a future date.

In his letter, Kevin Shipley, who carried out the peer review for XCG, concludes that "because the subject property is public land located in a densely populated area of Ottawa, and is used extensively by the public for community events, the development of an appropriate plan for managing the contamination should be done in a way that allows the public to be informed and to provide input".

Read the Peer Review by XCG Consultants here.

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Contact:

Kevin Shipley (613) 542-5888 #215

Steven Shrybman (613) 482-2456