Environmental Remediation

As Canada’s earliest centre of industrial development, Cape Breton has a number of environmentally compromised industrial sites.

Cape Breton’s Sydney Tar Ponds and Coke Ovens are large-scale remediation sites – comprising over 100 hectares – that lie within close proximity to active residential and commercial areas.

Hundreds of engineering and scientific studies have already been completed to inform a $500 million remediation effort. The sheer magnitude of this work has created, and will continue to create, significant technical expertise in Cape Breton.

Opportunity

CSEE will play a key role in this work, serving as a 'living laboratory' to build understanding around the environmental aspects of post-industrial sites. This approach enables CSEE to build strong strategic partnerships within industry and academia, across the region and beyond.

This expertise has a market across the country and the globe. For example, over the next 10 years, the Government of Canada plans to spend $3.5 billion in remediation and risk management of federally owned contaminated sites, and CSEE will be well positioned to assist in these efforts.

Research Focus

CSEE is committed to examining the long-term integrity of managed sites through remediation technology. Possible research topics include:

• Solidification and stabilization cell recipe
• Sustainability of solidification and stabilization method
• Data information management

Research Chair

Recruitment of Chair in progress