# Cleaning Up Canada's DEW Line



## The Bread Guy (7 Jun 2010)

This, from MERX:


> .... The Project involves the environmental remediation of five former Mid Canada Line Radar Sites in Ontario, Sites 500, 424, 427, 503 and 506 ....  referred to in this RFP as "the Winisk Cluster". The predominant soil contaminant at Site 500 is petroleum hydrocarbons at tank farms, vehicle dump and airport hangar, and garage including suspected buried tanks. There is minimal other chemical contamination of soils at the Site, including PCB soil contamination, at Site 500. Other contaminates include but are not limited to paint with lead and PCBs, asbestos and scattered debris resulting from demolition of buildings, sludge, and drums containing free product.  The Doppler Sites have a metal clad building, metal tower (lying on the ground) and scattered debris, which may consist of, but are not limited to wood debris, metal and some 45 gallon drums. There is no hazardous material or chemical soil contamination at these Doppler Sites.  The Work shall entail QA/QC for the Project ....



More on the history of the Mid-Canada line:
- http://www.lswilson.ca/mcl.htm
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Canada_Line
- http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/pet_132_e_28859.html
- http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/airdef/annexf.htm (includes info on the CADIN/Pinetree systems as well)
- http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/aina/DEWLineBib.pdf (1.54MB pdf, "The Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line:  A Bibliography and Documentary Resource List," P. Whitney Lackenbauer, Ph.D., Matthew J. Farish, Ph.D. and Jennifer Arthur-Lackenbauer, M.Sc., prepared for the Arctic Institute of North America, October 2005)


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## The Bread Guy (18 Jun 2010)

New deadline for proposals:  3:00:00 p.m. on 2 July 2010

More in attached.


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## The Bread Guy (9 Sep 2010)

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources announcement:


> .... The Weenusk First Nation community on the Hudson Bay will work closely with the Ontario government on the clean up of the largest abandoned radar site in Northern Ontario.
> 
> Over the next three years, the Weenusk First Nation will operate a remote base camp for workers and assist with the clean up of Site 500 part of the Mid-Canada Line near Peawanuck. More than 40 jobs will be created for the Weenusk First Nation in the first year of the project.
> 
> ...


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## The Bread Guy (5 Nov 2010)

Another try?


> .... The Ontario Shared Services on behalf of the Ministry of Natural Resources, invites sealed proposals for Environmental Remediation of the Former Mid Canada Line Radar Site WINISK Cluster (Sites 500, 424, 427,503 and 506)
> 
> History and Background
> 
> ...


More here.


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## The Bread Guy (28 May 2011)

From the _Globe & Mail_:


> Six decades after the radar operators gave up their search for Russian bombers streaking across the Northern Ontario sky, a massive cleanup effort will finally begin to erase a ghost town that was very briefly one of Canada’s most important military installations.
> 
> The town doesn’t even have a formal name – military documents simply refer to it as Site 500. It was the operations centre for the Ontario portion of the Mid Canada Line Radar installation, a network of 17 sites built as part of a national network in the 1950s to monitor the skies for foreign invaders.
> 
> ...


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## Dennis Ruhl (28 May 2011)

> The sites are contaminated with toxic materials such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), hydrocarbons, mercury and asbestos, as well as derelict buildings



These pollutants were all simply incidental to human activity of the time, not introduced for some devious purpose.  If we chose we could probably spend the total GNP for the next 100 years cleaning up asbestos alone in our cities.  We are in the process of requiring mercury filled light bulbs to be in every home.  PCBs are still around in old electrical stuff and our libraries would be full of it from old printers ink.

Just have a big fire and dig a big hole.  Seriously, what's the problem.


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## jeffb (28 May 2011)

The problem is that it's Federal land. The government should not be in the business of just walking away from sites and leaving our mess for someone else to worry about.


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## Scott (28 May 2011)

Dennis Ruhl said:
			
		

> These pollutants were all simply incidental to human activity of the time, not introduced for some devious purpose.  If we chose we could probably spend the total GNP for the next 100 years cleaning up asbestos alone in our cities.  We are in the process of requiring mercury filled light bulbs to be in every home.  PCBs are still around in old electrical stuff and our libraries would be full of it from old printers ink.
> 
> Just have a big fire and dig a big hole.  Seriously, what's the problem.



I struggle to find your point among this half cocked drivel, what is it?

Are you saying we should do nothing? Because I thought that curb was relatively low.


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## Dennis Ruhl (28 May 2011)

Scott said:
			
		

> I struggle to find your point among this half cocked drivel, what is it?
> 
> Are you saying we should do nothing? Because I thought that curb was relatively low.



My half cocked drivel is that these pollutants are in our cities at a levels thousands of times higher and we do next to nothing.  How many thousands of tons of asbestos are in our homes? Many.  Other than retrieving PCB filled equipment, I suggest doing something - burning and burying.


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## Scott (28 May 2011)

Recommendation for asbestos in the home, if it is still sealed: do nothing.

Recommendation for asbestos in the workplace, if it is still sealed: do nothing.

Cities are not federal lands that might have aboroginal claims.

I now remember why the very large part of the membership of this forum simply ignore you.


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## The Bread Guy (22 Nov 2011)

Dennis Ruhl said:
			
		

> Other than retrieving PCB filled equipment, I suggest doing something - *burning and burying*.


It appears neither of these are going to be an option - this from MERX:


> .... DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION CANADA (DCC) – # DLCHAZ– Transportation and Disposal of Hazardous Waste Material from DEW line Sites
> 
> The work includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the supply of labour, material, and equipment necessary for the disposal Transportation and Disposal of Hazardous Waste Material from Dew Line Sites
> 
> ...


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## The Bread Guy (26 Jan 2012)

Wanted:  Someone to provide “remediation activities at the FOX-E Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line Site on Durban  Island and the former US Coast Guard Weather Station on Padloping Island, Nunavut.”  

Previous MERX listing (July 2011) here.


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