The end of an era: OPG Nanticoke site buildings demolished

By Valerie Posthumus

The Haldimand Press

NANTICOKE—On August 22, 2019 the landscape on the shores of Lake Erie were changed forever by the demolition of the Ontario Power Generation (OPG) buildings at the Nanticoke site.

“They’ve been putting the explosives in there now for several days and it will take about 30 seconds to bring it all down once it starts … it will take several more months to get the site cleaned up and you will be able to see Lake Erie for the first time in many, many decades,” said Neal Kelly, Director Media, Issues, Information Management for OPG.

The site previously burned coal to produce energy but was shut down after the provincial government decided to ban the use of coal in energy production.

Kelly noted that OPG operated in Nanticoke for about 50 years.

“There were a lot of people that raised their families and made a good living with jobs they had here,” said Kelly. “I think we can be proud to say that we have been able to safely shut this place down in a responsible manner and while not everybody was pleased it was being shut down, there wasn’t a lot of criticism because we did talk to anybody that wanted to talk about it. There was a lot of planning that went into it.”

The demolition went off precisely as planned around 8 a.m. August 22 with the winds favourable to gently carry the dust cloud out over Lake Erie.

Dennis Randall, Project Site Manager, said, “At the end of the day it is nuisance dust. We’re sampling the dust so we know what the constituents in that dust are…. We remediated and removed all hazardous agents from that building before we started to demolish.”

prior to the demolition, some of the crew gathered for last-minute discussions. Pictured (l-)r Randy Heitman, Dennis Randall, Project Site Manager, Joe Mateus, Project Manager, and John Nadwodny. The site is now home to a 44-megawatt solar facility that was completed and online on March 29, 2019.
—Haldimand Press photos by Valerie Posthumus.