Ottawa Rethinks Toxic Site Priorities After Giant Cleanup Costs Balloon

"Cleanup costs at a single northern mine next to Great Slave Lake are ballooning so high they are forcing Ottawa to rethink plans for thousands of contaminated sites across the country."



"Documents obtained by northern environmentalists show the government expects the cost of cleaning up the Giant Mine just outside Yellowknife to be nearly a billion dollars — perhaps the largest single environmental cleanup in Canada and paid for entirely by taxpayers.

Initial estimates for safely dealing with the huge site, which includes a toxic smorgasbord of buildings, tailings ponds and a quarter-million tonnes of arsenic stored underground, were about $488 million."

Bob Weber reports for the Canadian Press April 1, 2013.

Source: Canadian Press, 04/03/2013