Construction activity at Canatara Park in Sarnia gets underway Monday.
Crews will start emergency remediation work to contain and recover floating oil spreading underground at the former Michigan Avenue landfill.
The first phase involves soil removal and the installation of a sheet pile wall on the west side of the park, near Ernest Street. That work will take about a week to complete, then they'll build another wall in the area of Lake Chipican.
Engineering and Operations General Manager David Jackson said they've been monitoring the oil closely over the years.
"We've always been aware that it's there, and there already are sheet pile walls in the area," said Jackson. "It's unfortunate that it is migrating now, and that is a concern for us. We have lots of monitoring wells in the area and we keep an eye on it. This is kind of just the process that's involved with managing one of these landfills over its life cycle."
Jackson said disruptions will be minimal however the walking path running parallel to Front Street, extending north to Louisa Street, will be closed off.
Overall, he expects the work will take no more than a month or two to complete.
The site was a municipal landfill for the City of Sarnia from 1929 to 1967 and also accepted industrial waste from 1930 to 1944.
