Notice of the City of Brantford’s Intent to Conduct Residential Indoor Air Quality Monitoring

BRANTFORD, ON: In 2012, the City of Brantford hired Jacobs Engineering Group (Jacobs) to design and oversee the remediation of the former brownfield property located at 17 Sydenham Street to a residential/parkland standard using a risk assessment approach to manage environmental contaminates.

A Record of Site Condition (RSC) was successfully obtained from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MOECP), for the Site in March 2018, which allows the site to be redeveloped for residential purposes in the future. As part of the RSC process, a Certificate of Property Use (CPU) was issued by the MOECP, which included conducting post-remediation environmental monitoring on Site for a minimum of two (2) years, completed in the Fall of 2019. Following the completion of the two-year monitoring program, an additional one year of monitoring was completed to further assess the concentration of Trichloroethylene (TCE) on Site which was completed at the end of 2020.

Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a chemical generally associated with industrial degreasing activities and can impact air quality when vapours from contaminated soil or groundwater migrate into buildings through cracks in building foundations. The source of the TCE on the brownfield site was believed to be an equipment pit located in the southwest portion of the historical industrial facility. When the soil was originally contaminated, best practices for the safe disposal of hazardous materials were not in place. Instead, many industries dumped these materials into the soil onsite without understanding the impact this could have on the environment. 

The most current groundwater and soil vapour data at the property boundary on 17 Sydenham St. suggests that contaminant from historical on-site industrial operations may extend off-site towards some neighbouring residential properties. In close consultation with the MOECP, the City and MOECP have concluded that additional monitoring is required at certain locations adjacent to 17 Sydenham Street, due to the potential for off-site migration of TCE. We do not know for certain at this point if any off-site migration of TCE has occurred.

While the City of Brantford is not the historic contaminator, we are the property owners now and as such the health and safety of our residents is our primary concern. We are still in the investigative stage at this point and there is no way to confirm whether or not off-site contamination has occurred without additional testing of potentially impacted properties.

To properly assess neighbouring properties, the City has reached out to three residences for their permission to conduct residential indoor air monitoring at homes in close proximity to where levels of TCE that exceed provincial standards were identified.

Based on consultation with the Brant County Health Unit, it is important to note that these activities do not present a public health threat to the community at large. If members of the public have any questions related to your personal health, please reach out to your general practitioner (GP) or personal health care provider.

For more information and regular updates regarding this project, please visit brantford.ca/17SydenhamSite.

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Media Contact: 

Maria Visocchi Director, Communications and Community Engagement
City of Brantford | Office: 519.759.4150 Ext. 5754 | mvisocchi@brantford.ca

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