Pilot plant will recycle soils on Toronto waterfront

People crowded into a community centre on Queen Street East, downtown Toronto, on Thursday evening, March 11, expecting to hear what plans are afoot for building a pilot soil treatment plant on the brownfield lands designated for redevelopment by Waterfront Toronto.
However, the crown agency has only just closed its request for proposals for the pilot study and didn’t release any details of what kinds of technologies might be involved.
The soil recycling plant is required to treat the soils on the 800 hectares of brownfield lands that are being developed by Waterfront Toronto to the east of the downtown core.
Seventeen proposals have been received for the pilot, said Raffi Bedrosyan, P.Eng., director of the Port Lands Development. They include technologies from Canada and around the world. Consulting engineers have partnered with the various companies taking part.
Over the next few months three or more technologies will be selected for the pilot studies. Once the approvals are obtained, the plants should be constructed this fall, and the results evaluated by 2011.
The pilot project is intended to process 50,000 tonnes of soils from the lands. Ultimately, the full-scale plant will be built to process up to 2,500 tonnes of impacted soil per day, to a maximum of 600,000 tonnes per year.
The waterfront areas designated for development were industrial lands from the 1820s to the 1960s, and much of the area was constructed with infill materials. Most of the soils, however, are believed to be only marginally contaminated and should be able to be treated and re-used.
The recycling plant is to be constructed on a site at Unwin Avenue in the Port Lands section, which is at the southeast corner of the areas designated for redevelopment.