The mayor of St. Clair Township is disappointed in the direction taken by Ontario Power Generation regarding the former Lambton Generating Station.
OPG has told the township that tenders for the clean up will be awarded by the middle of 2018. Steve Arnold says he and council were told Monday the stacks and other buildings involved in coal production will be levelled but the office buildings will stay. The entire project should wrap up in spring 2021.
Council would have liked to develop the 900 hectare site into residential lots.
"We're not going to have that greenfield space that we asked for," says Arnold. "We're very disappointed that's not going to be the long term plan but we'll work with them and try to make it the best we can."
OPG will retain ownership of the property.
"The switch gear is going to be left there in place because that's still a part of the electrical grid of the province," says Arnold. "All the towers, all the transmission lines will be there because there's a number of gas-fired plants that were put in place as a replacement for Lambton Generating Station."
Arnold adds OPG officials promised to meet with them on a quarterly basis to provide updates.