City of Hamilton meets crucial deadline in Chedoke Creek dredging project

The City of Hamilton says it has met a crucial deadline in the Chedoke Creek dredging project.

With a single day to spare, the final truckload of contaminated sediment was “successfully transported off-site,” last Tuesday, rendering the city compliant with the province’s work order in one of the many phases of the Chedoke Creek remediation project.

In total, officials say 16,000 tonnes of contaminated sediment had to be moved — or about 300 truckloads.

While the dredging work has itself been completed, some work still remains before the park can re-open to the public.

The City says the final tally on costs won’t come until the clean-up is complete, thus far they have not exceeded their budget.

The work to move the waste hit a major roadblock in October when the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) brought up concerns about sending the waste to GFL’s landfill in Stoney Creek.

READ MORE: Hamilton says landfill rejects waste dredged from Chedoke Creek

Officials at the time said a “misunderstanding around the classification of the waste” had occurred between the ministry and the cleanup project team.

“The Stoney Creek Regional Facility landfill’s approval prohibits the disposal of sewage waste, but permits the disposal of contaminated soils,” a spokesperson for MECP wrote in an email to CHCH News.

“The ministry informed GFL and the city that material from the Chedoke Creek Remediation project may contain sewage material.”

As a result, only eight loads of contaminated sediment made it to the local landfill before a new disposal location had to be found.

Despite the setback, the city was able to find another contractor in Sarnia who was willing to dispose of the waste.

The province ordered that the work begin after it was discovered that 24 billion litres of sewage leaked into the creek between 2014 and 2018.

Over the years, the project has faced several delays.

READ MORE: 

• Dredging at Chedoke Creek paused after Haudenosaunee Confederacy interruption
• Deadline extended for Hamilton’s dredging of Chedoke Creek

In August of 2022, the project was put on hold while it entered discussions between the MECP and members of a local Indigenous community in a land dispute.

Following those discussions, a one-year extension was granted to the project in December 2022.

Another singular-month extension was later permitted following what Hamilton officials described as an “unseasonably wet weather experienced through July and August, as well as equipment challenges caused by larger rocks and unexpected materials within the dredged footprint.”

With files from CHCH’s Amanda Pope, Joanna Petropoulos, Samantha Lawson