Passmore Avenue Low Level Radioactive Waste Storage Site

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The historic wastes in Scarborough, which contain the naturally radioactive element radium, arose from radium-recovery operations and other activities that took place on a farm in the mid-1940s. The McClure Crescent area in Scarborough was developed in the mid-1970s without knowledge of the history of the site.

In 1980, radium contamination was discovered on McClure Crescent. Additional contamination was discovered at nearby McLevin Avenue in April 1990.

The Malvern Remedial Project, a joint Canada-Ontario project, was established to complete the cleanup in the Malvern area. Radium-contaminated soil was removed from more than 60 residential and commercial properties at McClure Crescent and McLevin Avenue in 1995. With the assistance of the community, a proposal was developed to excavate the soil and take it to a soil-sorting and interim storage site on Passmore Avenue in an industrial section of Scarborough where it was sorted. The licensable portion of the low-level radioactive waste was transferred to a storage building at Chalk River, Ontario, operated for the LLRWMO by AECL. The mildly contaminated soils (about 9 000 cubic metres) resulting from the soil-sorting process were placed in an engineered storage mound at Passmore Avenue and landscaped to blend in with the surrounding land.

An environmental monitoring and site maintenance program is in effect until a long-term management solution is available to the LLRWMO. Results of the environmental monitoring program are posted at the interim storage mound, and annual monitoring reports are available at the Malvern Public Library in Scarborough. The results show that the storage site is not adversely affecting the local environment.