Fort George sitedecontamination due to go to tender

THE decontamination of Fort George - variously projected to cost anywhere between £5m and £9m - is about to go out to tender upon which the actual cost of the clean-up will be revealed, according to the Office of First and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM).
By The Newsroom
Published 17th Dec 2011, 10:35 BST

UUP MLA Michael Copeland asked the First and Deputy First Minister if they were aware it cost approximately £5 million to decontaminate the Fort George site.

His estimate of the cost of the decontamination work - which is soon to go out to tender - is considerably lower than that provided by former Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie in 2009.

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Ms Ritchie said cleaning up the contamination of the site with heavy metals could cost up to £9m.

But responding last week to Mr Copeland’s query OFMDFM stated: “The Fort George site is the responsibility of the Minister for Social Development.

“Our officials are in regular liaison with their counterparts in the Department for Social Development through our joint ownership of the Ilex Urban Regeneration Company, which has specific responsibility to manage and re-develop the two former military bases of Ebrington and Fort George.

“Decontamination works for Fort George are about to go out to tender which will determine the actual costs that will be incurred.”

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Ilex says decontamination processes are likely to include air-sparging which is used for the remediation of sites contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbon and entails injection of compressed air into the ground via boreholes; and pump and treat/soil flushing which involves the extraction of contaminated groundwater using pumps or the siphoning effect of a vacuum stream applied below the water table.

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