Abandoned Uranium Minesite To Be Tidied Up

Abandoned Uranium Minesite To Be Tidied Up

Wednesday, August 05, 2009 at 12:37

 

 

The early stages of clean-up have begun at the old Gunnar mine site near Uranium City.

 

It’s part of the CLEANS project, which stands for Cleanup of Abandoned Northern Sites.

 

The Saskatchewan Research Council has been commissioned by the government to do the job, and right now it’s doing the environmental assessment.

 

During the whole process, SRC has also been talking to people living in the area.

 

Joe Muldoon, SRC’s vice-president of environment and forestry, says once or twice a year, SRC holds public meetings in the surrounding communities.

 

“We have a project review committee, which is comprised of members from the various Aboriginal and local communities, that we try and meet with several times a year. We communicate when we’re on-site as well,” Muldoon says.

 

Muldoon says they are hearing from people that they want an appropriate cleanup to take place, and locals would also like any employment that arises from the cleanup.

 

He says whenever it is possible, SRC will provide jobs to the local population.

 

Muldoon expects that once the assessment is finished, clean-up could take a couple of years, but the site would need to be monitored for many years after that.