There’s a dull thud as Dave Wright boots a rusting 45-gallon drum in the White Hills area of east-end St. John’s.
It’s obviously still full — of something.
And that’s one of the many troubling unknowns about the corroding scrap and junk in an area popular with berry pickers, bikers and hikers.
Wright has frequented the White Hills’ trails and roads for years, and lately he’s been up with a metal detector searching for old coins.
“In some places I’ve dug up, you can smell the chemicals in the soil,” he says with disgust.
He walks through a meadow and says his medal detector beeps continuously when he uses it there.
“This was all bulldozed over,” he says. “This was just an American dump.”
Given that the U.S. operated a military base, Fort Pepperrell, at the base of the hill from 1941-61, that seems like the obvious explanation for the rusting barrels, coloured soil and what appears to be medical waste.
Concrete bunkers with steel doors support that theory, as does the live ammunition Wright says he’s found.
“You don’t realize what’s around until you go off the beaten trail into the bushes and the woods and see what was buried up here years ago,” he says.
Because of the obvious and potential hazards, he’d like to see some level of government remediation at the site.
“You really need to dig it up and see what’s down there and get rid of it,” he says.
He’s worried about the mountain bikers who are disturbing the unknown material when they build trails. And he’s concerned about the potential effects on the new housing development planned for Pleasantville.
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“All this is going downhill,” he says. “This goes down to Quidi Vidi. You don’t know what’s in it.”
After looking at the area with Wright Monday, The Telegram attempted to find what hazards, if any, are buried under the White Hills.
That turned out to be a tougher challenge than hiking to the site, as answers weren’t available.
The biggest hurdle was finding out which level of government was responsible for the land.
When the Americans left in August 1961, according to www.heritage.nf.ca, a line was drawn through the base. The federal government took west of Virginia Waters and the province took the east.
“You don’t realize what’s around until you go off the beaten trail into the bushes and the woods and see what was buried up here years ago." - Dave Wright
Just who took ownership of the 27.57 acres on the White Hills the U.S. had leased for a radio tower — and presumably a dump — wasn’t evident from the heritage website article, and turned out to be unclear.
After four days of searching and countless calls to various sources, as well as to numerous municipal, provincial and federal departments, The Telegram tried to determine whose jurisdiction the property falls under.
The City of St. John’s doesn’t own the land. And because there’s no street address and properties belonging to other governments are often lumped together, it was next to impossible to solve the mystery there.
Everyone contacted in the provincial and federal governments seemed eager to help, but the answer wasn’t at their fingertips or in their databases.
Provincial officials examined maps to try to determine ownership. From the area described, they eventually suggested it appears to be federal.
People at Public Works and Government Services Canada, which is responsible for a lot of federal lands, also looked at maps. As of deadline Friday, they had not provided an official response.
While at White Hills, Wright also pointed out some contraptions that appear to be used for soil testing.
The Telegram also tried to find out who was behind the monitoring. The province doesn’t appear to be involved and neither does the federal Environment Department.
“We are not currently doing anything and we haven’t come across any records of work that’s been done,” an Environment Canada spokeswoman said Friday morning.
Hearing it was so hard to get information about the site, Wright said it seemed like no one wanted to take responsibility.
“I think they know what’s potentially buried up there, and they’re trying to mothball it for now,” he said.
He suspects there’s contaminated waste in the hills and that it’s leaching into the ground.
“It’s got to be cleaned up,” he said.
The Telegram expects to get some official answers about the area next week.
sbartlett@thetelegram.com
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