Saglek – Project Management

Inuit hunters found the remote region on the icy waters of the Labrador Sea, abounding with the caribou of the George River herd, today that herd is still some 800,000 strong, along with Polar bears, wolves and other land animals. The rivers virtually teemed with Arctic Char while Saglek Bay hosted a large contingent of seals and whales.

In the mid-1900s an outpost was established by a religious order at Hebron. It was later abandoned.

During the 1950s, at the height of the Cold War, a radar base, part of the DEW Line system was built and operated by the United States military until the 1970s. Today the site is home to a radar installation, part of the North Warning System, operated by the Canadian Department of National Defence.

During the 1980s it was found that in the transition of control from the U.S. to Canada, dump sites at Saglek had become contaminated with PCBs, probably from transformer oils or similar sources.

Subsequent testing found PCBs were working their way into the local food chain, especially in marine life such as the Arctic char and seal populations. These findings led to a decision by the federal government to clean up site where 40,000 tonnes of soil was excavated into three large mounds along with 10 tonnes of metal debris. The cost will exceed $29 million CDN.