Ontario’s Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) is giving the City of Hamilton more time to complete a cleanup of Chedoke Creek.
In an email to Global News, a city spokesperson says the ministry has agreed to an extension of a couple of more months for “clean-up activities” with a revised deadline moved from Aug. 31 to Oct. 31 to finish a dredging initiative.
“I want to personally thank the provincial government for addressing the City’s concerns,” Mayor Andrea Horwath said in a statement after the extension.
“I appreciate the collaboration of City staff, MECP staff, Minister (David) Piccini and his office with myself and my office that resulted in the revised order.”
In December 2022, the ministry agreed in principle to give the city until the end of 2023 to complete the targeted dredging of the creek to prevent further ecological impacts to that waterway and the adjoining Cootes Paradise.
At the time, the city cited a need for more time due to “complexities, challenges, and delays” the city and its contractors have endured while executing the 2022 work plan.
However, MECP spokesperson Gary Wheeler told Global News that had been moved up to Aug. 31 since the province granted work permit extensions and renewals to begin “without delay.”
In a closed-door meeting on Thursday, councillors voted six to five to apply for an extension after the city’s director of water Nick Winters said “the city doesn’t believe the August 31st date will be achievable” due to “a lot of unknowns” in the process.
“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 a 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.”
The city has been under orders from the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks 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 be completed by the end of 2022.
However, the project encountered a stoppage via Indigenous demonstrators who contested improper consultation in keeping with local treaty rights.