MARATHON – Environment – Marathon, Pic River and area residents may have noticed boats operating in Peninsula Harbour and wondered what they were doing. The increased vessel traffic results from an extensive suite of environmental monitoring taking place this summer in Marathon’s main harbour on Lake Superior – Peninsula Harbour.
The Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change and Environment and Climate Change Canada are cooperating to carry out monitoring related to the $7 million “thin-layer cap” remediation project for harbour mercury and PCB contamination. This project was completed in 2012.
Monitoring is mean to quantify:
-whether the cap is mixing with native lake-bottom sediments
-whether the cap is meeting remedial goals to decrease average mercury concentrations
-whether native aquatic life and plants are re-colonizing the area of clean fill deposited in Peninsula Harbour during the 2012 capping process.
