The Path to a Recommended Remediation Strategy for Ottawa Riverbed Sediment

Abstract

There are many factors that influence how a remediation decision is made. Fundamentally, a risk-based, methodical consideration of potential, or actual, impacts to human health and the environment should form the basis of a defensible remediation solution. However, in addition to evaluation of the technical aspects in an assessment, it is also imperative to success to ask the community what they perceive the risks and effects of the contamination to be. "Perceived risks are as tangible as ‘real’ risks as far as the decision making process is concerned".

This paper considers the factors required for an effective remediation decision-making assessment process. This process will be employed to determine a recommended remediation strategy for contaminated sediment in the Ottawa River adjacent to Atomic Energy of Canada Limited’s (AECL) Chalk River Laboratories (CRL) site. This is one of the legacy liabilities currently being managed by AECL under the Nuclear Legacy Liabilities Program (NLLP) funded through Natural Resources Canada.