Riel deadline extended
St. Albert now has three more years to clean up a leaky landfill in Riel Park.
City officials announced Tuesday that Environment Canada had agreed to extend their deadline for the remediation of the Riel Park landfill from 2012 to 2015.
The landfill, which closed around 1986, is located on the south shore of the Sturgeon River between the soccer fields and the rodeo grounds. Environment Canada ordered the city to take action on it in 2004 after it discovered that toxic leachate could be leaking from its trash into the river.
The city set out a plan to cap the landfill with a 60-centimetre-thick layer of clay to stop rain from washing toxins out of the trash, said city environmental manager Leah Jackson. Since this involved moving facilities like the rodeo grounds, it also added in some upgrades to the region. The remediation work was supposed to be done next year, with a report to the federal government following in 2013.
But complications like the unexpected discovery of methane pockets caused deadlines to slip and costs to balloon. Originally priced at $8.4 million, the remediation has now been pegged at about $32.1 million. Work on phases three and four came to a halt this year after council chose not to fund them, wanting a detailed analysis of the project's cost first. That has now been completed, Jackson said, and there will be $9 million in this fall's budget for the work.
It became pretty obvious last year that the city wouldn't meet its deadline, said Guy Boston, general manager of planning and engineering, so the city asked for an extension. They now have until 2014 to finish the work, with the final report due by 2015.
Workers have already rebuilt the area's RV park, rodeo grounds and BMX track, Jackson said. The next two phases will involve tearing up the rugby and soccer fields near Ray Gibbon Drive, and should start in fall 2012.
"We learned a lot in phase one," she said, so these phases shouldn't be as difficult. The biggest challenge will be getting the grass ready in time for the 2014 playing season. "It's going to be great when it's done."
Mayor Nolan Crouse said he expects the cash for this work will be approved in this fall's budget. "I'm just pleased it's ready to go forward."
New flagpole
A statue of Lois Hole briefly went under wraps this month as staff prepared to raise a fourth flagpole at St. Albert Place.
Residents reported seeing the bronze statue of former lieutenant governor Lois Hole wrapped in a white cover around Aug. 19. This was not, as some suspected, in preparation for a move, but to protect it from nearby work on a fourth flagpole.
Council agreed to spend $4,000 on a fourth flagpole after they realized they were violating flag etiquette, said Crouse, who made the motion last December.
"The protocol with flags is that you're not allowed to fly two flags on one pole," he said, but the city has done that on several occasions, such as during Métis Week.
A fourth pole will allow the city to fly the Canadian, Albertan and city flags on their own poles, leaving a fourth for special ones such as the Métis flag or the flags of visiting nations.
The Hole statue is now uncovered, according to city staff, and the base of the flagpole is complete. The pole itself should be raised in a couple of weeks.
