Results from a soil study in Nickel Centre, northeast of Sudbury, Ont., indicate that soil contamination levels pose no immediate threat to area residents.
The study is part of a broad, ongoing soil-testing program in the Sudbury Basin involving the the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE), the Medical Officer of Health, Inco and Falconbridge.
Falconbridge hired Golder Associates, an international environmental firm, to conduct the tests after the company learned the preliminary results of a 30-year MOE study. That study concludes that metal and arsenic levels are comparable with those found in other Ontario communities where soil contamination has occurred as a result of industrial activity.
The MOE will conduct further sampling, and both Falconbridge and Inco will be required to assess risks to human health using the results of the ministry’s new sampling.
The MOE says high metal concentrations are typically found in the upper soil layers, which is an indication that air pollution is the source.
“The [MOE] findings, which they admit are limited, were related to air emissions,” says Caroline Casselman, a spokesman for Falconbridge. “[But] there seems to be something else happening there. It’s a different pattern than you would expect from air emissions.”
Soil samples in the Golder study were gathered in and around the former township of Falconbridge in July and analyzed over the past six weeks by an MOE-approved lab. The metal content of several of these soil samples is within provincial guidelines, whereas other samples were found to exceed the guidelines set for nickel, copper, arsenic and cobalt.
The study concludes that “the data obtained indicate that the metal concentrations in soil vary substantially, both laterally and with depth.”
The results of the study have been given to the MOE and the Medical Officer of Health for review.
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