Ch. 3 Land - Environment Yukon

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Waste oil is the largest component of special waste in the territory, and disposal of this product was not regulated before this time. For many years waste oil was spread on the roads in the territory to suppress dust, a practice that is no longer permitted. Waste oil collected by the City of Whitehorse was poured into one area of the landfill, where it is causing an ongoing environmental problem. A Pond of Oil For about 20 years, waste oil was dumped on top of piles of waste rock next to the War Eagle Pit. By the time this practice ended in 1995, a shallow pond of oil had formed on the surface, and hydrocarbons now seep out of the toe of the waste rock pile. The city is now studying the site to determine the best way to treat and clean up this contaminated area. Shredding Rubber In Whitehorse, most waste oil is now burned in waste oil burners that are used to heat some businesses. Contaminated waste oil that is not acceptable for burning is shipped out of the territory. Now the Special Waste Regulations, together with the Dangerous Goods Transportation Act, and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act complete a cradle-to-grave management system for dangerous goods handled in the Yukon. The most common special wastes in the Yukon are used motor oil, solvents, paint, cleaners, anti-freeze, dry cleaning chemicals, photo-processing fluids, batteries and biomedical wastes. Under the regulations anyone who generates, stores, handles, mixes, disposes, collects or releases special wastes is considered a waste manager, and is responsible for knowing and complying with the regulations. Permits are required for generating, handling or disposing of special waste or for operating a special waste management Used tires are not an easy item to dispose of properly, and Yukoners wear out between 11,000 and 15,000 tires every year. Most of the tires end up at the Whitehorse dump, and by 1999, it is estimated that the tire pile there contained about 300,000 tires. Tire piles are a major hazard. Fires have started in huge tire piles in several North American cities, and in 1997, a brush fire close to the Whitehorse landfill threatened to ignite the tire pile there before fire retardant was spread on the flames to stop the fire from spreading. The City of Whitehorse has made several attempts to dispose of the tires. In October 1999, the city shredded a substantial number of the tires, and will use the resulting material to cover parts of the city landfill. This pilot project could be expanded in the future. In November 1999, the city began charging a $4 fee for dropping off tires at the landfill, and those revenues will be used to truck tires to disposal centres in the south. The option of a tire stewardship program, in which a point-of-sale tax is added to the price of the tire, has also been discussed. facility (ie collecting waste from other sources). At the time of publication, 139 special waste permits had been issued in the territory. The Yukon government ships special waste out of the territory once a year. Every year a tender is put out for operation of the Special Waste Collection Program. The successful contractor collects, transports, and looks after appropriate disposal for all the waste collected in this program. One other initiative in special waste management is the Household Hazardous Waste Collection days. Special waste accumulated in the home can be dropped off during advertised collection days in Whitehorse and some communities, diverting these products from garbage dumps. What are we doing about contaminated sites? Contamination is not an easy term to define. Some people might say that an area with piles of rusting drums, old equipment and crumbling buildings is a contaminated site. But according to territorial laws, only sites with chemical pollution are considered to be contaminated. The federal government manages contaminated sites on federal land, referring to them as waste management sites. The Yukon Environment Act Contaminated Sites Regulations The Contaminated Sites Regulations under the Yukon’s Environment Act were proclaimed on January 1, 1997. The regulations are intended to protect human health and the environment from harmful contaminants in soil and water. The regulations apply to sites on Commissioner’s Land, municipal land and private land. They do not apply to sites on federal land. The federal government has its own program for contaminated sites. 5 8 ❧ Y U K O N S T A T E O F T H E E N V I R O N M E N T R E P O R T 1999
Contaminant? In Carcross, the recent removal of the remains of an old sternwheeler tugboat from the Nares River showed how people can have very different ideas about this issue. To the local First Nation, the old boat was a contaminant, but other people were more concerned about losing an important part of the Yukon’s heritage than about possible pollution from the boat. Soil and water standards are used to determine whether or not a site is contaminated. A contaminated site contains chemical substances above the levels set out in the standards. After reviewing the available information, the Yukon Minister of Renewable Resources makes the final decision on whether or not a site is designated as contaminated. If a designated contaminated site is determined to be a threat to public health or the environment, the person or corporation responsible for creating it may be ordered to clean it up. People who own or occupy a designated contaminated site also must apply to the Minister before making any significant change in the use of the site. Five sites have been designated as contaminated under the Yukon legislation, and about 70 other sites are known to be contaminated, but have not yet been reviewed by the Renewable Resources Minister. A railroad tie treatment plant operating from 1950s to mid 70s on the Nares River at Carcross used a mixture of pentachlorophenol, a wood preservative, and diesel oil to treat the wood. A 1997 assessment found that the soil and groundwater at the site were contaminated, as well as the water in the river. The contaminated soil was removed from the site and from the near-shore river bed. The contaminated soil is being treated by a process called land-farming. The soil was spread on non-porous ground at an old pumping station outside of Carcross. There it will be tilled regularly to expose it to the air so that native microbes can break down the hydrocarbons in the soil. Contaminated soil was land-farmed at another site, the fire-training area near the Whitehorse airport. The soil is now considered to be safe and the area will be reseeded. Contamination at the North of 60˚ Petro site in the Marwell industrial area is being contained. The Whispering Willows RV Park in Stewart Crossing has been completely cleaned up and has been issued a Certificate of Compliance. The Marwell tar pit in Whitehorse was Marwell Tar Pit designated as contaminated in May 1998, but no decision has been made yet on cleaning up this site. The Yukon government has asked the federal government to pay the clean-up costs, but no decision on responsibility has yet been made 5. Storage Tank Regulations These regulations, passed in 1997, establish requirements for storing petroleum products and other hazardous substances on Yukon land. The requirements are for new or altered storage tanks, both above and below ground. They specify that tanks must be removed when they are of no further use or have been out of service for a year. The regulations are aimed primarily at new tanks and do not set standards for old storage tanks. A survey conducted in 1993 estimated that hundreds of the old tanks scattered around the Yukon could be leaking. It cost about $27 million to build the Canol Refinery, which was used to process oil pumped from the oilfields of Norman Wells during World War II. The facility was closed down and later dismantled after only a year of operations. It is thought that the tar pit was established when the storage tanks from the refinery were removed. A disposal site was needed for the sludge of heavy oil, called tank bottoms, left in the tanks, so they were dumped into one of the huge earthen berms that had been built around each of the tanks. For years other parties, including the Department of National Defence, continued to dump their waste oil into this well-known site. In 1958 a man died from exposure after being trapped in the pit. There have been many calls for a clean-up of this heavily contaminated site, which has an estimated 27,000 cubic metres of contaminated soil. Several treatment methods have been investigated; including thermal desorption (high temperature burning) and biological treatment. In 1994, the clean-up costs were estimated to be $4 million. To date, no decision has been made on who should pay for cleaning up the site; although the Yukon government has repeatedly asked the federal government to take action on this. C H A P T E R 3 L A N D ❧ 5 9
Page 1 and 2: The Yukon is situated in the northw
Page 3 and 4: number of humans is immense. As cou
Page 5 and 6: Different data sources for 1999 tha
Page 7 and 8: ■ protecting core areas within ea
Page 9 and 10: within the study area in February 1
Page 11 and 12: 3.4 Mining Mining has been an impor
Page 13 and 14: An environmental review committee,
Page 15 and 16: Reclamation and Abandonment When th
Page 17 and 18: first bar of gold on November 23, 1
Page 19 and 20: This creates uncertainty and delays
Page 21 and 22: every year in the Yukon, but the an
Page 23 and 24: Direct Costs: ■ Picking up Whiteh
Page 25: The Yukon’s beverage container re
Page 29 and 30: PROGRESS & CHALLENGES Since the 199
Page 31 and 32: with the objective of import replac
Page 33 and 34: still exist along the old trails an
Page 35 and 36: 3.8 Tourism Tourism is gaining impo

Ch. 3 Land - Environment Yukon

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