January 31, 2025 – Indigenous Services Canada must determine whether the proposed remediation project in Sandy Lake First Nation is likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects.

To help inform this determination, Indigenous Services Canada is inviting comments from the public respecting that determination. All comments received will be considered public. For more information, individuals should consult the Privacy Notice on the Registry website.

Written comments must be submitted by March 3, 2025 to:

Amenda Hong, Environment Officer
9th Floor, 655 Bay Street, Toronto ON 
amenda.hong@sac-isc.gc.ca

The Proposed Project

Sandy Lake First Nation has proposed a remediation project for the petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) impacts in the soil at the Former School and DGS Site. The project involves excavation of approximately 20,000 m3 of clean soil and 16,000 m3 of impacted soil. The area of excavation is approximately 7,000 m2, with excavation depths ranging from 1m to 9m. The project will also involve some excavation of impacted sediment along the south shoreline and river bed of the Severn River. The excavated impacted soil will be hauled for treatment at the newly created 3 hectare Soil Management Facility (SMF) and following soil removal, the areas will be backfilled with a combination of treated soil and earth borrow, and then compacted. Physical activities will include tree clearing and grubbing, construction of a 3ha SMF, demolition and disposal of the former water treatment plant, excavation of gravel roadways and removal of the on-site groundwater interception trench.