section4-02c

Townsite Management

Provide Responsible Environmental Stewardship and Heritage Conservation

Contaminated Sites

Contaminated sites are a potential source of soil and groundwater pollution. The Agency identifies suspected contaminated sites, confirms that pollution exists (i.e., known contained site), assesses what actions are necessary and appropriate, and then undertakes either risk management (i.e., a combination of actions including removal or reduction of contaminants, modifying or limiting use of the site and stopping or limiting exposures to contaminants) or remediation (i.e., removing, or treating on site, the contaminants to reduce them to acceptable levels). Once remediation actions have taken place, the site is then considered cleaned up and may be followed by a few years of periodic monitoring to ensure that remediation objectives are met. Results for the last two years are shown in Table 29. The data for 2005-2006 is different from the data that was published in last year’s report. This is due to more accurate and refined counting of contaminated sites. Sites determined to be outside of townsite boundaries as well as sites that have been assessed but require no further action due to insignificant levels of contamination have been removed.

Table 29: Status of Contaminated Sites in Townsites

Townsite	2006-2007		2005-2006
	Number of Suspected or Known Sites	Percentage Risk Managed or Remediated	Number of Suspected or Known Sites	Percentage Risk Managed or Remediated
Field	1	75%	1	75%
Lake Louise	1	86%	2	71%
Waterton	0	N/A	0	N/A
Waskesiu	3	67%	4	50%
Wasagaming	2	0%	2	0%
Total	7		9
Banff	8	56%	7	61%
Jasper	2	75%	2	75%
Total	10		9
Grand Total	17	65%	18	62%
Source: Environmental Management System Database

The Agency seeks to increase the number of sites that are risk-managed, and to undertake remediation within budget limits. During 2006-2007, one site was remediated and one risk-managed (Lake Louise and Waskesiu respectively) while one more site (Waskesiu) was identified and requires assessment. The percentage of remediated or risk-managed sites increased from 62% to 65%.

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