Sydney Tar Ponds

The Sydney Tar Ponds were a hazardous waste site on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Located on the eastern shore of Sydney Harbour in the former city of Sydney (now amalgamated into the Cape Breton Regional Municipality), the Tar Ponds formed in a tidal estuary at the mouth of Muggah Creek, a freshwater stream that empties into the harbour. Throughout the 19th century, runoff from coke ovens associated with Sydney Steel Corporation's (SYSCO) now-decommissioned steel mill filled the estuary with a variety of coal-based contaminants and sludge. Efforts to clean up the waterway were dogged by false starts, delays, and political controversy. After extensive public consultation and technical studies, a C$400 million cleanup plan, jointly funded by the Government of Canada and Government of Nova Scotia, was announced in January 2007. The cleanup was completed in 2013 with the opening of Open Hearth Park which is situated on the site of the former steel plant and has hosted events such as an Aerosmith concert in September 2014.

The North Pond and the South Pond extended over a combined area of 34 hectares (84 acres), and contained 500,000 metric tonnes of contaminated sediments. The nearby coke ovens site spanned 68 hectares (168 acres) on a sloping field overlooking the estuary. It contained an estimated 560,000 tonnes of contaminated soil.

A small stream, the Coke Ovens Brook Connector, connected the coke ovens with the Tar Ponds. It served as the main pathway for contaminants migrating from the coke ovens to the Tar Ponds. To the east of the coke ovens, and uphill from them, an abandoned municipal dump served as an additional source of contaminated groundwater, or leachate.

The polluted sites lay in the middle of the former city of Sydney (estimated population 25,000), now part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) (2001 population 105,968).

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