General Urban Kitchener Updates and Rumours

[mastermind]

This picture reminds me, does anyone know what's up with that unkept green space behind the UW building parking lot?  It's a fairly large space that you really notice when you walk the path from King St toward the new google garage.

The space along the tracks? If it's the space I'm thinking of, it's got significant industrial contamination, the remediation would cost more than the land is worth, hence the land is absolutely worthless now. Even putting a trail on the land was difficult because the city had to get permission to develop on the contaminated site without remediating it. It was only allowed because trail users weren't "lingering" basically, it's fine if you just pass through, but you cannot inhabit that space.

Oh wow interesting, I had no idea I was taking my life in my hands while walking by haha!

[danbrotherston]

The space along the tracks? If it's the space I'm thinking of, it's got significant industrial contamination, the remediation would cost more than the land is worth, hence the land is absolutely worthless now. Even putting a trail on the land was difficult because the city had to get permission to develop on the contaminated site without remediating it. It was only allowed because trail users weren't "lingering" basically, it's fine if you just pass through, but you cannot inhabit that space.

Oh wow interesting, I had no idea I was taking my life in my hands while walking by haha!

Lol...I mean, it's supposed to be safe, whatever environmental organization approved it believes it's safe...just don't eat the dirt...or...dig any holes.

[Momo26]

What the heck went on, on that portion of land, presumably decades ago?

Are people working at places like the Glove box, or living at Kaufman lofts, inadvertently exposed to biohazard?

[neonjoe]

Epton Industries.
Rubber and plastics company.

https://www.plasticsnews.com/article/199...c-to-close

[kps]

What the heck went on, on that portion of land, presumably decades ago?

           

[danbrotherston]

A “biohazard” is generally a hazardous biological agent. As far as I understand the hazard in this case is not biological in nature. </well actually>. As for hazards to nearby workers. It’s considered localized, and not believed to have spread outside the property in question. But it’s not impossible of course.

[cherrypark]

Easiest tell for these spaces are the (usually blue) groundwater sample wells and a few drums around the site. Where those are, you can be fairly certain some level of contamination is being monitored and would need remediation.

[ZEBuilder]

Easiest tell for these spaces are the (usually blue) groundwater sample wells and a few drums around the site. Where those are, you can be fairly certain some level of contamination is being monitored and would need remediation.

The drums are a good tell but it doesn't necessarily mean that contamination is being monitored. In some cases the tailings from doing the well/borehole drilling itself aren't allowed to be left on site, so the drums are used to dispose of them. Likewise when you're developing a well (involves pumping very specific volumes of water out) you need to dispose of the water that you pump out even if it has no contaminants so the drums are used. Then you have the cases where the water is contaminated.

I will say that this property may not be the worse place for contamination downtown, I've done some work elsewhere downtown on a larger site and on that site there are some extremely high levels of hydrocarbons and VOC's in the ground. So much so that after pumping nearly 90 litres out of a singular well (3x the well volume) the water was still coming out with a very strong hydrocarbon odour, had a obvious sheen and was tinted black, so there's definitely other places downtown that are just as bad. 

If there's proof that the contamination from that grass area with the trail has spread to another property, for example lets say across the tracks to Station Park (I have no idea if this has actually happened) they can sue the property owners for clean up costs even if the current owners didn't contaminate the land themselves. So there's also a mess of legal issues when it comes to contamination.

[danbrotherston]

Easiest tell for these spaces are the (usually blue) groundwater sample wells and a few drums around the site. Where those are, you can be fairly certain some level of contamination is being monitored and would need remediation.

The drums are a good tell but it doesn't necessarily mean that contamination is being monitored. In some cases the tailings from doing the well/borehole drilling itself aren't allowed to be left on site, so the drums are used to dispose of them. Likewise when you're developing a well (involves pumping very specific volumes of water out) you need to dispose of the water that you pump out even if it has no contaminants so the drums are used. Then you have the cases where the water is contaminated.

I will say that this property may not be the worse place for contamination downtown, I've done some work elsewhere downtown on a larger site and on that site there are some extremely high levels of hydrocarbons and VOC's in the ground. So much so that after pumping nearly 90 litres out of a singular well (3x the well volume) the water was still coming out with a very strong hydrocarbon odour, had a obvious sheen and was tinted black, so there's definitely other places downtown that are just as bad. 

If there's proof that the contamination from that grass area with the trail has spread to another property, for example lets say across the tracks to Station Park (I have no idea if this has actually happened) they can sue the property owners for clean up costs even if the current owners didn't contaminate the land themselves. So there's also a mess of legal issues when it comes to contamination.

AFAIK the city is the current property owner. As has been the case for much of our history, the capitalists have fled with the money, and we are left saddled with the externalities.

In any case, with the current trend of land downtown, at some point, the land will be come so valuable that it's value will exceed the cost of cleaning it up, and then at that point, the city will sell it off, hopefully with a trail easement.

[tomh009]

Epton Industries.
Rubber and plastics company.

https://www.plasticsnews.com/article/199...c-to-close

Earlier (but probably not originally?) it was either Uniroyal or BFGoodrich, I forget which.

[Rainrider22]

The name on the water tower may help....Goodrich.

[Bytor]

Question for you architects and arm chair quarter back architects...

Would you prefer a building like this to anything that has popped up in DTK (or Waterloo as well for that matter)?

https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toron...d-toronto/

How more does that cost that the bland, uninspiring ones?

[tomh009]

Stacked towns on Trussler Rd, with minimal variances. Surely the neighbourhood will be up in arms about this ...
https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...7bc76.html

[Momo26]

Approve it and get a move on.

Enough of this effing housing crisis.

[ac3r]

Approve it and get a move on.

Enough of this effing housing crisis.

Sorry mate. Best we can do is deny approval, second best we can do is reduce the number of units and increase the number of parking spaces 100 fold. Won't someone PLEASE think of the privacy impacts and stormwater?!?