| NEWS | Sun, January 23, 2005 |
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OTTAWA -- National Defence has discovered six sites across Canada - including three at Alberta's CFB Suffield - where chemical and biological warfare agents have been buried and "pose a potential risk to human health and/or the environment," documents obtained by Sun Media reveal. The four land and two marine locations have been identified by DND's Warfare Agent Disposal (WAD) project. Documents obtained under Access to Information show federal government officials are worried about the level of risk and are deciding how to carry out a cleanup.
The feds earmarked $14 million in 2002 so the WAD team could begin the long process of going through historical records to determine where munitions, nuclear waste and mustard gas are buried or ended up on the ocean off Nova Scotia and Newfoundland following the Second World War.
Their action was prompted by a Cape Breton antique dealer who came across several marine maps detailing where a series of unexploded munitions were dumped in the Atlantic Ocean.
That led to a further discovery of four land sites.
Three of the four land sites are located at CFB Suffield, about 250 km southeast of Calgary. The fourth is an unidentified industrial park that DND refused to name.
In a February 2004 background briefing note for Defence Minister Bill Graham, the WAD project group noted senior government officials agreed there is a need "to determine a proactive and diligent approach for addressing former disposal sites of chemical and biological warfare agents."
The same document suggests it could cost millions to clean up the six sites.
"The current budget for the WAD Project is based on a limited number of sites being investigated. Sites determined to pose a risk to human health and or the environment will be submitted as stand-alone projects for funding. Until these assessments are completed, it is difficult (to determine) what future costs will be associated with mitigating these risks."
The WAD group has been alerted to a number of other sites, both on land and at sea, which have been given a clean bill. Those other sites include the Connaught shooting range and Shirley's Bay, both west of Ottawa.
WAD project manager Dan Godbout insisted there's no immediate danger to humans, but he admitted it's not known what the long-term risks, if any, could be.
Godbout couldn't specify the quantities in question.
"We don't have the full extent as to the full amount. We don't suspect thousands of tonnes. We suspect minor amounts," he said.