Vale is looking to purchase the Meatbird Lake recreation area in Lively as they prepare to undertake a $100-million tailings dam improvement project over the next 10 years.
Members of the Vale North Atlantic Leadership team gave a presentation to city council on Sept. 22, digging into the rationale behind the proposed purchase of the land.
The land in question was originally owned by Inco, the company that Vale purchased, and was sold to the City of Greater Sudbury for $2. Meatbird Lake was filled with potable (drinking) water and is replenished with a fountain of potable water from Vale's Vermilion Water Treatment Plant.
The city currently owns and manages the site as a recreational facility.
Vale's tailings dam improvement projects will include an erosion control project located near the Meatbird Lake recreation area and will involve heavy truck traffic in close proximity to the park, creating a significant safety risk to the public.
"When we start this work and as it continues over the 10-year period of when we expect to execute this work, we're expecting significant truck traffic in this area," said Claire Parkinson, member of the Vale North Atlantic Leadership Team.
"We're estimating that the truck traffic will be in the area of about a truck every six minutes, so we're concerned about the safety risk to the public in the close proximity of the park, Meatbird Lake recreational area, to our haulage road at the dam."
Environmental remediation will also be required at the site due to its proximity to Vale's central tailings area. Work would include improvements to the seepage capture systems and removing and replacing impacted material from the bottom of the lake and surrounding area.
Vale has found that there is tailings seepage from its property into the recreation area.
"We need to have an interceptor trench built as well as wells to intercept the surface water and groundwater that is seeping from Vale property on to this public property," said Parkinson.
"The roadway that is present where the haulage of the material will occur … [is] very close proximity to the walking path that circles Meatbird swimming hole. So we know we need to do this remediation work as we have identified that there is seepage coming off of our property into the Meatbird recreational area."
Vale is offering to purchase the property for fair market value. It is also offering a $400,000 community recreation fund to enhance other existing recreational infrastructure in Lively.
"We understand the impact that this request has on the community of Lively and probably even broader than that community, so we're offering a $400,000 community recreation fund," said Parkinson. "We're in the planning stages of executing this work and as a result, we're also requesting (the city) to consider the requirement for us to access the site to do some sampling."
Vale had made a request to the city prior to the COVID-19 pandemic to have access to the site to conduct water sampling and are now waiting for approval to move forward with sampling the lake and the bed of the lake.
Ward 5 Coun. Robert Kirwan posed the question to the Vale leadership team of what would happen should the city decide not to sell the land.
"If the city decides to decline your offer to purchase, how will this affect your project moving forward, and will Vale still consider supplying the lake with potable water?" said Kirwan.
Vale has not established a formal plan for the event that the city opts not to sell, and it would be a "back to the drawing board" situation.
"If we're unable to purchase the property, I can't answer what we'll do. We'll have to go back and consider the three factors that I've put forward," said Parkinson.
"One being the safety of the public with the work we have over the next 10 years. The sustainability perspective from the water conservation is something that we are absolutely looking at, to stop the flow of water to the lake, and we have a regulatory obligation to remediate the area.
“We know we have seepage in the area, (and) we know the water has stayed clean because of the amount of potable water that we pump into that lake, and we do have an obligation to clean up what we have created from an impacted area that is seeping off Vale property."
Ward 3 Coun. Gerry Montpellier raised some concern about Lively losing a valued community asset like Meatbird Lake, asking if Vale would be open to replacing the asset.
"I understand that you have to purchase it. My question has to do with the price. Would Vale be open and amicable to replacing the asset? When I say replacing the asset, I can assure you the money that we're talking about do no in any way, shape or form allow the city to replace that asset," said Montpellier.
"I know Vale and the former Inco would replace assets, move assets, is that something that's open for discussion, to replace that asset for the good people of Lively."
Parkinson responded that there haven't been any discussions beyond putting forward fair market value for the property, along with the $400,000 community recreation fund.
"To move the asset I think that would require a bit of different exploring of that option because I'm not sure what that could look like at this point," Parkinson said.
Presently, the city does not have an estimate on what the fair market value price would be for the property in question, though staff did indicate that it would be something they will be looking into.
