$2,400 tarp fix solves Iqaluit’s gravel woes

Asbestos reburied; contractors free to take gravel

By NUNATSIAQ NEWS

JOHN THOMPSON

Iqaluit’s gravel pit is to open for business this week.

That comes as a relief to contractors, who worried that up to $70 million in business would be lost this construction season, first because of squabbling between different levels of government, and then because of a tiny tear in a tarp.

That tarp covers hundreds of bags of asbestos inside North 40, which is the only source of gravel for the city, as well as a former metal dump and a known contaminated site.

On May 26, Workers Compensation Board staff noticed that the tarp had torn, exposing four to five bags of asbestos. They ordered the city to rebury the bags.

That was a problem, because last fall city council agreed not to spend any money on environmental cleanup in North 40, after the city paid $37,000 during the summer to safely cover the asbestos.

But last Thursday city council agreed to pay Nunatta Environmental $2,407.50 to fix the five-foot by five-foot tear in the tarp.

That work is to be done by Thursday afternoon this week, after the deadline of Nunatsiaq News.

The city has a number of precautions to prevent contaminated gravel being spread around the town, said Geoff Baker, the city’s manager of engineering services.

Contractors who quarry the site need to test their gravel to ensure it’s not contaminated. Those tests must be approved by both the city and federal government.

In the last two years gravel has been removed from North 40, all tests have come back clean, Baker said.

City council’s motion also states that the city does not accept responsibility for cleaning up the site.

Just who owns North 40 has been disputed for many years by the city, the Government of Nunavut and the federal government, perhaps because no one wants to pay the eventual cost of an expensive clean-up.

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