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“Historical documentation and environmental reports produced for the City of Calgary point to varying degrees of contamination in the area – the result of previous heavy industrial use,” Brown said.

Photo by Courtesy CalgaryNEXT.com / Calgary Herald

A predecessor of Domtar Corporation owned and operated a wood preserving plant on a 15-hectare parcel of land between 14th Street and Crowchild Trail before it closed in 1962.

However, the operator left behind an estimated two million litres of creosote, a toxic wood preservative, which could cost tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up.

In August, the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporationpitched an ambitious plan to build an $890-million sports complex on the site.

The facility, dubbed CalgaryNEXT, would include a new hockey arena for the Calgary Flames and a combined CFL football stadium and multi-sport field house.

While the group has proposed using both public and private dollars to build the facility, it’s still unclear who is responsible for cleaning up the site.

Both Mayor Naheed Nenshi and Environment Minister Shannon Phillips have said the polluter should foot the bill for the remediation.

The CMLC, a subsidiary of the city overseeing the redevelopment of the Rivers District (which includes the East Village), has been tasked with analyzing the environmental contamination in the West Village.

The land corporation earlier hired a law firm, Dentons Canada, to complete a regulatory and liability analysis related to the polluter’s role in remediating or mitigating the site.

“It is still too early to assume how development can responsibly occur in West Village but we are committed to working with the city to answer the right questions,” added Brown.

A full report will be shared with the city in April 2016.

thowell@calgaryherald.com