Recognizing Member Excellence
The ESAA Industry Awards is an annual awards program that recognizes member excellence in the areas of environmental innovation. The program is open to all ESAA member organizations with the winners announced and awarded each year at the RemTech Symposium held in October.
2024 Winners
2024 Environmental Project of the Year
FARO MINE REMEDIATION PROJECT
Parsons
The Faro Mine Remediation project is one of the most complex abandoned mine clean-up projects in Canada and was established to prevent the contamination of nearby land and water from the former mining operation. The site is in the asserted Traditional Territory of the Kaska Nation, with Ross River being most affected and close St. Indigenous community to the site.
Why was this project so unique? The remote location. Which is 200 km from Whitehorse, the harsh weather conditions, and sheer scale of the project required a sizable, multi-disciplinary team to effectively implement innovative solutions to protect the environment and human health and safety.
The Faro Mine site consists of several areas of interest including open pits, waste rock dumps, a tailings storage facility, water management, and buildings and infrastructure.
The Faro PIT, with a storage capacity of approximately 100 million cubic metres, is used to store contaminated water collected from across the site which allows seasonal water treatment to occur. The waste rock dumps are acid generating, which mobilizes metal contaminants that can subsequently find their way into the aquatic environment. The tailings facility includes four dams holding back over 57 million tonnes of tailings which are also highly reactive and releasing metals into the surrounding environment.
Parsons has completed several urgent works including: a new Water Treatment Plant to increase capacity; construction of a seepage collection system to reduce iron loading to the Rose Creek; and the realignment of the North Fork Rose Creek to ensure clean water is diverted away from a significant source of zinc contamination.
Parsons will soon be awarding a contract for the construction of a Permanent Water Treatment Plant which is intended to operate for decades to come. This will be one of the largest infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the Yukon and will significantly reduce the risk of any future unplanned contaminated water discharge.
The Faro Mine Project not only received the Yukon Regional Business Sustainability Award, BUT more importantly, the Indigenous people whose lives were so negatively affected by the faro mine, can finally begin to experience healing, while benefiting from the remediation and closure of the site.
Congratulations Parsons!
2023 Winners
2023 Environmental Project of the Year
Roadside naturalization pilot project
Earthmaster Enviromental Strategies Inc.
The pilot project’s goal was to develop alternative landscaping to enhance the function of public land along the roadways in Calgary. The purpose of the three-year pilot project was to replace the existing manicured turfgrass with a mixture of native seeds suitable for restoring a native terrestrial ecosystem and increasing species diversity and supporting the pollinator population.
Why was this project so unique? The project was unique because the goal was to fundamentally change how the city of Calgary approached landscaping within the municipality. In year 1, the site was dominated by the annual flower cover crop with beautiful colors resulting in an immediate significant increase in the bee population.
In years 2 and 3, the planned succession of annuals to more permanent perennial species was underway with the result of a balanced meadow-like appearance composed of wildflowers and native grasses which restored 1% of the city’s open space.
This project was a successful collaboration between Earthmaster, the City of Calgary, the University of Calgary, and ISL Engineering and involved regular engagement with neighbouring residents and schools.
Earthmaster was successful in replacing the manicured turfgrass with a mixture of 14 species of annual and perennial wildflowers and 10 species of native grass which went from providing little benefit to pollinators to significantly increasing the pollinator population.
This project not only won industry project of the year with ESAA but also played a huge part in the city of Calgary receiving the Bee City designation from bee city Canada. All while restoring vibrant colors and beauty back to our roadways.
Congratulations Earthmaster!