DCC helps protect Okanagan residents

Defence Construction Canada (DCC) provides contracting, construction contract management and related infrastructure services to the Department of National Defence (DND).

Since 2005, DND has spearheaded a project to reduce public safety risks posed by unexploded explosive ordnance (UXO). Called the DND UXO and Legacy Sites Program, its primary aim is to identify and catalogue locations across Canada where UXO is present.  DCC is currently engaged in UXO clearance operations as well as public education campaigns near five legacy sites in south-central British Columbia: Madelaine Lake/Glenemma, Goose Lake Range, the Commonage, Coldstream and the Cosens Bay area. According to Stephanie Culleton, DCC’s Environmental Project Coordinator for the Regional District of North Okanagan, the stakeholders are many and varied. "The federal, provincial and municipal governments, as well as private landowners—everybody has a stake," she says.

Culleton explains that the focus is on five distinct pieces of land. All are properties formerly owned, leased or used by DND that contain UXO from past military operations. Before World War I, DND established a military camp near Vernon. Later, during the World War II and Cold War eras, military maneuvers occurred throughout the region. A number of Okanagan locations were used for live-fire exercises involving artillery, mortars, tanks and anti-tank weapons. Today, much of the land is used for private farming. Tourists and local residents frequent a provincial park southeast of Vernon. On the Okanagan Indian Band Reserve, inhabitants have long had some concerns about the dangers of UXO from decades past. Ordnance known to have been used on ranges and training fields in the Vernon area includes pyrotechnics (thunder flashes and smoke grenades), small arms ammunition and mortars. “The most common types of UXO found are two- and three-inch mortars, primarily World War II era,” says Culleton of the Vernon legacy sites.

Since the end of World War II, there have been eight UXO-related fatalities in the Vernon area. In the spring of 1948, three men were killed while loading topsoil into a truck. In March 1963, two Boy Scouts were killed and one was injured when the youths discovered an unexploded mortar. In April 1973, two children were killed and two others wounded by an explosion possibly caused by a two-inch mortar located close to their trailer park.As Canada’s population increases, it is inevitable that people will come into more frequent contact with UXO on properties that were once remote. That is certainly the situation in the Okanagan, where the need to reassess UXO hazards has been highlighted in recent years by commercial and residential land development. Culleton notes that the area is thriving economically and expanding at a rapid pace. Residential subdivisions with million-dollar homes are being constructed in the region.

In 2007, a wide area assessment of the Vernon legacy sites was conducted. However, the area was discovered to contain heavily magnetized rock and the results of the survey were not specific due to magnetic interference. DCC is now using different technology and an innovative approach to maximize the output of usable data. In 2008, DCC began working closely with the City of Vernon and its surrounding areas to help minimize the risk to local citizens, especially construction workers.  DCC’s strategy for 2009 involves increasing public awareness. Culleton says there are plans to visit schools in the region to let children know what they should do if they discover a suspicious-looking object. Determining whether something is UXO can be difficult, even for an expert. After it has been lying around for decades, the ordnance usually loses its original shape, paint and markings. It may look more like a piece of old pipe, a pop can, an old car muffler or bits of rusty metal. Culleton expects that DCC will have a role to play at the Vernon-area legacy sites for years to come, especially in educating the public and raising awareness of the risk.
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The UXO Hazard Legacy Sites in the Vernon, B.C., Area

Bomb washes up on shore of Calgary reservoir

Katie Schneider, QMI Agency Toronto Sun:

CALGARY — Police say a piece of world history washed up on the banks of the Glenmore Reservoir Saturday afternoon. Insp. Darren Cave said a passerby found a military ordnance from the Second World War measuring about half a metre long rusted and broken into two pieces near the Glenmore Sailing School. The TACT team was sent out to check if there was any risk to public safety since it was close to a bike path but determined there was none.

Explosives possible at site of future B.C. park

Monday, May 24, 2010 CBC NEWS:

The southern British Columbia community of Vernon is hoping to turn land that the Department of National Defence has used for military training into a nature park. There's just one problem — the DND says the 56-hectare plot might still be littered with explosives similar to those that have cost eight area residents their lives since the Second World War. Roses Pond, which is now home to several different types of wildlife and sits in an area just outside Vernon referred to locally as the Commonage, was first used by the military in 1942. Until the war came to an end, Canadian soldiers conducted training exercises inside the Commonage that involved anything from small arms to anti-tank munitions to grenades and mortar shells. Jonathon Preston, a spokesman for DND's Unexploded Explosives Ordnance and Legacy Sites program, said many of those mortar shells might still be in the ground, ready to go off at a moment's notice. "Until the risk assessment process has been completed, it is not possible to say with certainty what level of risk remains today," he said in an email."It is impossible to provide an answer to this question due to the availability, or lack thereof, of accurate information and records pertaining to military training and clearance practices of the time." DND officials are still conducting research to determine how safe the area might be. As part of the geophysical survey, they must try to track all buried metal objects using technology similar to that of an X-ray. Each item, from mortar shells to pop cans, must be individually excavated.

Vernon Mayor Wayne Lippert said the excavation process could run up to one year. Lippert said Roses Pond is already something of a tourist destination because of its abundant wildlife, and the city and North Okanagan Regional District only want to formalize trails around the pond and build a small parking lot. The mayor conceded, however, that even if DND formally signs off on the plan, he'll always have a slight tinge of anxiety about the area. "We know there's a risk, there's the possibility of it," he said, referring to the chance a mortar shell might go off near a civilian. "We [will] make sure we do everything we can to mitigate that risk." Lippert said two boy scouts were killed in the 1960s after they found a mortar shell and started examining it. But he said most area residents know ordnance is afoot and are used to watching out for danger, exploding or otherwise. "There's rattlesnakes around up there too and we can't stop someone from getting snakebit," he said. "We can educate, put up signs, and make sure that trails are in place to keep people as safe as possible and aware of whatever danger may be around."

There are five DND legacy sites near Vernon in all, plus a still-active military training area. In addition to the Commonage, the legacy sites include Cosens Bay, Coldstream Ranch, Goose Lake, and Madeline Lake. DND previously conducted two major sweeps of these areas, one in 1973 and the other in 1992. The first operation turned up 64 bits of ordnance; the second unearthed 11. Smaller scale clean-ups were staged between 1946 and 1963. The eight fatalities have occurred in the Commonage and Cosens Bay. If the park is completed, Lippert said DND is liable for any explosives accidents. The parcel of land is owned by the province, but leased by the City of Vernon.