The company, over a 5-year period, hopes to restore residential land by correcting, in a preventive manner, the accumulation over time of heavy metals in the soil.
Cost of the program, affecting about 500 residential sites, is estimated to be $1 million.
The program to restore and replace urban topsoil is taking place in conjunction with the Town of Murdochville, which sprang up in the interior of Gaspe Peninsula in the 1950s to service the copper- mining operations of Noranda Inc. (TSE).
The municipality will be responsible for planting “avenue” style trees.
Various studies made of the soil, from 1985 to 1987, revealed a level of contamination necessitating intervention, Mines Gaspe reports.
The amount of heavy metals present surpasses the recommended levels (in almost 50% of all of the sites sampled) of, among others, those recommended by the Royal Canadian Society, says the mine. The levels do not surpass, however, the norms which would require mandatory intervention.
The program includes a health section, consisting essentially of a medical study done before and again after the restoration work. The results of this study should be known by the beginning of autumn.
Mines Gaspe reports it is studying ways to reduce particle emissions into the atmosphere. The mine is hoping to be able to reduce the discharge of particles by 15-25% in one year.
Mining operations at Mines Gaspe resumed in February of this year following a 1987 underground fire.
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