ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

Date: June 29, 2000
Author/Local: Kolvane Yuh/7125

RTS# 1596

CC File Nos. 8206/2251

Council: July 25, 2000

TO:	Vancouver City Council
FROM:	Director of Real Estate Services
SUBJECT:	Southeast False Creek City Lands: Environmental Consultant Budget

RECOMMENDATION

THAT Council approve a contingency fund of $500,000 be established and used only in addressing pressing and unforeseeable environmental issues on City lands at Southeast False Creek as described in this report; source of funds to be the Property Endowment Fund.

GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

The General Manager of Corporate Services RECOMMENDS approval of the foregoing.

CITY MANAGER'S COMMENTS

This request deals with expenditures already incurred to deal with soil contamination issues along the southeast shore of False Creek and a budget of future expenditures.

Approval of funding now will allow work to be done to meet regulatory requirements in a timely manner. Therefore, the City Manager RECOMMENDS approval of the foregoing.

COUNCIL POLICY

Council has approved a series of administrative authorities which provide the City Manager and General Managers with the ability to approve certain types of expenditures from existing funding sources. For the purposes of this report this authority extends to the approval of individual new projects, the award of contracts and to the approval of change orders deemed appropriate under those contracts.

PURPOSE

This report seeks Council's approval of additional funding from the Property Endowment Fund to undertake pressing and unforeseeable environmental assessment and remediation work in the southeast False Creek area. A portion of this funding will be utilized to extend the contracts of two existing consultants working in the area with the balance being available to deal with environmental issues that may arise in the future on the City lands at Southeast False Creek.

BACKGROUND

On June 15, 1999 Council approved the implementation of a specific assessment and remediation program to respond to concerns of the Ministry of Environment (the Ministry) and to address the potential escape of contamination through ground water at the former Canron site and the asphalt plant area in Cambie Yard to False Creek. Council approved Donaldson Engineering Ltd as project manager and Morrow Environmental Consultants Inc as environmental consultant with the following budget:

	Asphalt Plant area	Former Canron site	Total
Donaldson	$42,570	$40,430	$83,000
Morrow	$141,570	$113,130	$254,700

To meet the Ministry's requirement, the work at the Canron site was completed in late 1999, and a remediation plan is near completion for the asphalt plant area; excavation of the asphalt plant area is expected to be carried out later this year.

DISCUSSION

The originally planned scope of work for Donaldson and Morrow did not foresee a number of difficulties that were revealed upon excavating the former Canron site. The volume, extent and degree of the contamination were significantly higher than what the borehole investigations revealed. Ground water control during excavation was made more difficult due to the much higher contamination actually found in the soils than the original investigations revealed. It is not unusual during actual excavation and remediation that unforeseen contamination is encountered that requires an immediate response to meet environmental concerns, Ministry regulations and cost efficiency.

At the asphalt plant area, the existing pump and treat system had to be halted briefly and re-established due to demolition of the former asphalt plant. During demolition of the asphalt plant, several monitoring wells were accidentally destroyed, and replacement wells had to be installed immediately to re-establish the pump and treat system. An abandoned large underground storage tank was encountered and had to be removed immediately as it was leaking.

In the course of the former Canron site remediation, the Ministry requested the City to update all environmental reports on City owned lands at Southeast False Creek, to meet current definitions and standards of the Contaminated Site Regulations. In addition, the Ministry has required additional environmental information related to the preparation of a development proposal for the Southeast False Creek lands.

The foregoing describes extra work carried out beyond the originally planned scope of work. In addition to that work, this report is also requesting funding for the preparation of Preliminary and Detailed Site Investigation reports for the Ministry, the preparation of information for further meeting the Ministry in connection with a development proposal of the whole site, ongoing pump and treat operation and ongoing ground water monitoring.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

The additional costs resulting from this work is $61,000 for Donaldson and $174,000 for Morrow, and an itemized table is attached as Appendix "A".

Given that the City will be continually carrying out investigation and remediation on Southeast False Creek lands and it is anticipated that there could be further unforeseen problems which will require immediate action, the Director of Real Estate Services recommends a contingency of $500,000 be established. Of this amount, $235,000 will be used to fund change orders on the contracts to Donaldson and Morrow for extra work already incurred, and the balance will be used to provide staff the flexibility necessary to meet future costs related specifically to environmental issues on City owned property in Southeast False Creek. With this funding in place, the General Manager of Corporate Services has the authority to approve contract costs to meet these immediate needs. The source of funds will be the Property Endowment Fund.

* * * *

(c) 1998 City of Vancouver