Environmental Assessment Process for the Port Hope Project and the Port Granby Project - A Responsible Authority's Perspective

Abstract

Detailed environmental assessments were initiated very early in project planning for two Government of Canada projects proposing to clean up and locally manage historic low-level radioactive waste over the long-term in the Port Hope area of Ontario. Both the Port Hope Project and the Port Granby Project are based on conceptual approaches proposed by the local communities as local solutions to a long standing environmental issue. In a legal agreement signed in 2001 with the affected municipalities, the Government of Canada accepted the community approaches as potentially suitable solutions for management of the waste. Federal environmental assessments of the proposals were launched shortly thereafter and have been used as planning tools to further define the community approaches with the participation of the local municipalities and the public. The environmental assessment process has been designed to allow for preferred alternatives for implementing each project to emerge that are environmentally, technically and socially acceptable.