Study of the Impacts of OB/OD Activity on Soils and Groundwater at the Destruction Area in CFAD Dundurn

Abstract : Since open burning/open detonation (OB/OD) has been proven elsewhere to be a polluting activity thereby representing a possible threat to human health and to the environment, it was decided to evaluate the impact of this activity on the environment at the largest OB/OD site in Canada. located at the Canadian Forces Ammunition Depot, CFAD Dundurn, Saskatchewan. A thorough investigation was initiated by collecting soils on the site followed by the drilling of boreholes and installation of many observation wells to analyse groundwater contamination by explosives. After four years of studying and performing analyses of soils and groundwater. it appeared that the Impact of the open destruction activity on the environment is minimal. Furthermore, because of the site's location, the velocity and the direction of the groundwater flow, there were no adverse effects on human health or ecological receptors. Therefore, it was concluded in this study that the open detonation of obsolete ammunition could be pursued at CFAD Dundurn using the same techniques while implementing a monitoring program of groundwater quality. On the other hand, the open burning activity was not evaluated on this site but study made on other sites showed that open burning is not as clean as open detonation since the temperature of the combustion is not as elevated.