Saskatoon woman wants to find new use for contaminated site
A Saskatoon woman wants answers after discovering a contaminated abandoned lot in the Riversdale area.
Karen Farmer learned of the Imperial Oil lot, between 19th and 20th Street and Avenue J and K, while working on a location search for the city centre school project.
The lot borders Optimist Park, older homes and some new multi family dwellings.
“It’s a contaminated site that has been sitting here for 25 years, close to the downtown of Saskatoon,” Farmer told CTV News.
Farmer wants to raise awareness about lots like these in the hopes that they can be put to more productive use for the neighbourhoods.
“I think they want to pretend its not there. It’s a large area and we need housing. We need affordable housing,” she said.
Imperial Oil said in an email to CTV News that it started operating the site in 1911 as a bulk fuel plant and service station.
It was decommissioned in 1996 which involved the removal of structures and underground tanks.
Since 2010, the company says more than 760 sites have been put back into use.
Spokesperson Keri Scobie said “there are no near term plans for this site.”
The province has a list of hazardous waste sites online. More than 200 are in the Saskatoon area alone, including the Riversdale site.
Part of the original lot it is now used by CHEP Good Food.
“We run an internship and education program every summer for youth aged 15-30, bringing them together around growing good food,” Zoe Arnold, CHEP urban agriculture coordinator said.
The CHEP group grows mostly vegetables there, but they are grown in either plastic bins or have a plastic barrier underneath.
“There is potential contamination of the soil, so hydrocarbons could be released in the soil for instance so we wouldn’t be able to grow in the ground here,” Arnold said.
Farmer wants the city increase taxes on lots like this to make it less appealing to leave it sit as is.
According to the city, such commercial lots had a property tax bill of about $106,000 this year.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
BREAKING New York appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction from landmark #MeToo trial
New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.
Residents of northern Alberta First Nation told to shelter in place
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
Monthly earnings rise, payroll employment falls: jobs report
The number of vacant jobs in Canada increased in February, while monthly payroll employment decreased in food services, manufacturing, and retail trade, among other sectors.
First in Canada procedure performed at London, Ont. hospital
A London man has become the first person in Canada to receive a robotic assisted surgery on his spine. Dave Myeh suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain that led to sciatica in his right now and extreme pain in his lower back.
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.