Sydney Tar Ponds
Nova Scotia, Canada
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Tar Ponds
Canada's Largest Remediation Site Uses S/S
 Sydney
Tar Ponds and Coke Ovens Site in Nova Scotia, Canada is the place
of a former steel plant, where 100 years of steel and coke production
left more than a million tons of contaminated soil and sediment.
The Canadian government committed C$400 million to remediate the
STPCO site during a 10-year period. This includes the solidification/stabilization
of nearly 600,000 m3 (785,000 cu yd) of contaminated
sediment and soil with portland cement within the actual tar ponds.
Hazardous constituents within the tar ponds include coal tars and
poly-chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
The cooling pond was an old circular reservoir,
built in 1912 to hold water once used in the steelmaking process.
The sediment, about 1.5 meters (5 ft) deep, was the consistency
of toothpaste and was impacted by total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs),
volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
(PAHs), and metals.
In mid-January, 2008, contractors started
to solidify and stabilize the sludge, starting with a pilot-scale
demonstration then moving on to full-scale solidification and stabilization.
A temporary road made of slag was constructed to give contractors
the ability to reach all contaminated areas within the cooling pond.
The S/S treatment of the cooling pond sediment
was completed in May 2008, and involved mixing 6,100 metric tons
(6,700 short tons) of cement into 29,000 m3 (38,000 cu
yd) of contaminated sediment .
Click here for
images showing the progression of the Cooling Pond treatment.
(Cooling Pond in the foreground)
Photos courtesy of Public Works and Government Services Canada
and Sydney Tar Ponds Agency
Click
here for the Syney Tar Ponds Web site.
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