July 24, 2007

Contractors at risk from unexploded munitions

HALIFAX

Halifax’s other explosion still poses health and safety risks, even 62 years later, says the organizer of a conference on munitions dumped in the sea.

Terry Long, who is putting together the first international conference on chemical and conventional munitions dumped at sea, said weapons are still lingering after the 1945 magazine explosion in Bedford.

“The explosion that went up for the two days would have thrown 20-millimetre rounds, mortars, depth charges, naval shells, bullets, all that kind of stuff and much, much more,” he said in an interview.

The result is that a lot of munitions are still laying around Bedford and Dartmouth, he said, and with so much construction being done without experts nearby, someone could get seriously hurt.

“I’m surprised nobody has been killed in Halifax to date, and you can quote me on that,” Long said.

It was early on the evening of July 18, 1945, almost 28 years after the 1917 Halifax Explosion, that the city’s other explosion occurred.

The Bedford Basin Magazine held shells, bombs, mines, torpedoes and 50,000 depth charges. Most of the ammunition was stored inside, but some of it was kept outside in piles that extended close to a jetty, where it’s believed a fire began and triggered a series of explosions that miraculously killed just one person.

Many unexploded shells were hurled into the harbour and surrounding property. Munitions turn up periodically and must be destroyed before construction projects can proceed.

Munitions dumped at sea certainly aren’t limited to Halifax harbour and its environs, but can be found all around the province.

Long said there are 3,000 munitions sites around Nova Scotia, including shipwrecks, other ships that were purposely sunk to dispose of the munitions they were carrying and even a site that contains depleted uranium near Halifax harbour.

“I think the depleted uranium site is something that’s not very well known. I know there’s a lot of people talking about it internationally, and they are going to come to the conference to talk about it.”

Long wouldn’t specify the exact site of the depleted uranium, other than to say it is near the mouth of Halifax harbour.

“You can easily find wrecks off Halifax, such as the City of Vienna, which ran aground on Black Rock during the Second World War.

The better majority of the ship is gone, and the only things remaining in about 20 feet of water are the munitions, which you can easily swim over,’’ he said.

He said one site off Sydney has been documented to contain over 180,000 tonnes of conventional munitions.

Canadian Press

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