Port Hope Area Initiative: Protecting Canada’s Environment for Future Generations
Port Hope & Clarington, Ontario
Project Lead: Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC)
Services: Project Management, Real Property Advisory
Port Granby Long-Term Waste Management Facility
The Port Hope Area Initiative (PHAI) is one of the largest and most complex environmental cleanup projects ever undertaken in Canada.
Launched by the Government of Canada in 2012, this multi-site, multi-year initiative aimed to locate and identify, then clean up, transport, and safely manage approximately 2.5 million cubic metres of historic low-level radioactive waste. The waste was spread across hundreds of residential, commercial, and public properties in several municipalities, including Port Hope and Clarington.
A byproduct of refining practices by Eldorado Nuclear Limited and its predecessors between 1933 and 1988, the waste poses long-term risks to land use, community health, and the surrounding environment.
The initiative was divided into two projects—Port Hope and Port Granby—each requiring a long-term waste management facility, in the form of an engineered above-ground mound, and a wastewater treatment plant to contain, process, and treat the waste safely and effectively.
This community-recommended solution aims to protect the health and safety of residents, safeguard the Great Lakes Basin ecosystem, and ensure the continued use of public lands for generations to come.
Project Goals
The projects required a tailored project management approach that accounted for the needs of multiple stakeholders, the proximity to homes and businesses, and strict requirements for radiation protection and environmental monitoring.
The goals of the Port Hope Area Initiative are to:
- Identify and locate varying types of low-level radioactive waste in the surrounding municipalities
- Clean up, transport, and manage low-level radioactive waste from public and private properties
- Effectively communicate to residents the risks, policies, and procedures in place to protect the public
- Remediate non-radioactive industrial waste from various sites
- Construct two long-term waste management facilities to safely manage the waste over the long term
- Build two wastewater treatment plants to treat surface water, groundwater, and contaminated water from within the engineered above-ground mounds
Executing these goals required careful environmental, health, and logistical planning across hundreds of impacted sites—including roadways, residential properties, commercial sites, and public facilities such as schools and parks. Locating and identifying the various types of low-level radioactive waste was also a key challenge that shaped the scope of the cleanup activities.
Given the impact on both public and private properties, communication with political leaders, municipal representatives, and residents was critical throughout and helped ensure the project progressed with public support.
Tiree's Role
Between 2012 and 2015, Tiree supported Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC)—working in partnership with the surrounding municipalities—by providing Real Property Advisory and Project Management services.
Given the project’s sensitive nature, the high level of public visibility, and technical complexity, PSPC, with support from Tiree, focused its efforts on stakeholder coordination, compliance with regulatory requirements, and risk mitigation. This helped ensure that early planning efforts aligned with federal policy requirements and public expectations.
Project Outcomes
Although the Port Hope Area Initiative is still underway, significant milestones have already been achieved.
The construction of the long-term waste management facility and wastewater treatment plant in Port Granby is complete. Approximately 750,000 m3 of waste has been successfully relocated to an engineered above-ground mound designed for safe, long-term waste containment. These efforts are intended to enable safer land use, rebuild community trust, and improve environmental quality for residents of Port Hope, Clarington, and the surrounding municipalities.
Port Hope Harbour