The City of Hamilton says it will appeal the latest environment ministry deadline requiring a targeted dredging of Chedoke Creek to be completed by the end of August.
In a closed-door meeting on Thursday, councillors voted six to five to make the plea after a previous agreement in principle from the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) had given city staff until the end of December to finish the remediation.
In an email to Global News, MECP spokesperson Gary Wheeler said they reached out to municipal staff and insisted there was “no need to delay clean-up activities” and that the city was instructed to begin dredging the Creek as soon as weather permits.
“It is critical that the remediation work gets underway to improve the watercourse and return Chedoke Creek to its pre-spill condition,” Wheeler said.
Nick Winters, director of water for Hamilton, said “the city doesn’t believe the August 31st date will be achievable” due to “a lot of unknowns” in the process.
At play, are agreements that need to be signed with First Nations on “environmental monitors” to oversee dredging locations as well as potential challenges during the process like significant weather events, supply chain delays and potential obstacles or workforce issues.
“Our contractor has advised us that you never really know what could be buried in the sediment that you’re trying to remove,” Winters explained in Friday afternoon media conference.
“That can cause challenges with the hydraulic dredging operation, and so that could be something as simple as tree branches that are buried or large rocks.”
In December, the ministry agreed in principle to give the city until December 31, 2023, to complete the dredging to prevent further ecological impacts to the creek and adjoining Cootes Paradise.
At the time, Cari Vanderperk, the city’s director of watershed management, revealed the extension in a note to councillors following dialogue with the ministry’s district manager and director over the “complexities, challenges, and delays” the city and its contractors have endured while executing the 2022 work plan.
The city has been under orders from the MECP to complete dredging of the creek to alleviate environmental impacts following the release of 24 billion litres of untreated wastewater between 2014 and 2018.
The city hopes to remove close to 11,000 cubic metres of contaminated sludge through a $6-million initiative it originally said would take six months to do and would be completed by the end of 2022.
However, the project encountered a stoppage due to Indigenous demonstrators who contested improper consultation with the Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI), an agency representing the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council.
The HDI, in previous communications with the City of Hamilton, said the Chiefs Council didn’t recognize the provincial government’s jurisdiction.
HDI spokesperson Aaron Detlor insists the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant treaty with the Anishinaabe, Mississaugas and Haudenosaunee in addition to the Between the Lakes Purchase treaty with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation of 1792 are the agreements in play.
Detlor told Global News the last communication the group had with the city was a March 3 email from Hamilton Water director Nick Winters stating the city is proceeding with the operation.
“They didn’t speak to us about the remediation,” Detlor said. “We’ve simply asked them to consider the impacts on treaty rights.”