Court File No.

12023/01 Ontario SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE B E T W E E N: WILFRED ROBERT PEARSON Plaintiff - and INCO LIMITED, HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN IN RIGHT OF ONTARIO, THE CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF PORT COLBORNE, THE REGIONAL MUNICIPALITY OF NIAGARA, THE DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD OF NIAGARA, and THE NIAGARA CATHOLIC DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD Defendants Proceeding under the Class Proceedings Act, 1992

AFFIDAVIT OF BRYAN D. WATTS, P. ENG. I, Bryan D. Watts, of the City of Richmond, in the Province of British Columbia, MAKE OATH AND SAY:

1.

I am a Professional Engineer employed by Klohn Crippen Consultants Ltd. The firms predecessor was

Klohn Crippen is a Canada-wide engineering consulting firm.

founded over fifty years ago as a specialist in soil mechanics (later called geotechnical engineering). The firm has grown into a large multidisciplinary engineering consultant but retains a particular expertise in geotechnical engineering. Klohn Crippen maintains ISO

9001:1994 registration, an internationally recognized quality assurance standard. 2. I hold the positions of Vice President, Engineering and Vice President, Mining

Group with Klohn Crippen. Previously I held the position of Vice President, Geotechnical

-2Group. I have a Masters of Science degree in Civil Engineering (Geotechnical Specialty) that was obtained from the University of Alberta in 1981. I have extensive experience in the design of foundations for buildings on weak, compressible soils and, in particular, on peats and organic silts and clays. I ha ve designed building and dam foundations on weak, compressible soils in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario. A copy of my curriculum vitae is attached as Exhibit A. I have knowledge of the matters to which I depose in this affidavit, except where I ha ve been advised of such matters, in which case I believe such information to be true. 3. I understand that among the matters at issue in this case is whether recent

subsurface operations at Incos Port Colborne facility in particular, ground water collectio n and treatment have caused settlement and damage to homes in the neighbourhood immediately to the west of the facility and east of the Welland Canal. This neighbourhood is bounded by Rodney Street, Davis Street, Durham Street and Welland Avenue. It comprises an area about 0.6 kilometres long and 0.3 kilometres wide. 4. At the request of Inco, I and other geotechnical engineers from Klohn Crippen

have visited the Port Colborne facility, examined the subsurface operations at the facility, inspected the Rod ney Street neighbourhood and studied ground conditions in the area. 5. We observed that some homes in the neighbourhood display signs of distress,

some of which could be due to settlement. On the other hand, most of the homes in the area do not exhibit damage that can be detected from the street. Determining the cause of existing damage for any particular home would be a highly home-specific and location-specific inquiry. This is especially so for the homes in the Rodney Street area for the reasons I discuss below.

-36. Most of the homes in this area are over 50 years old and are of very modest

construction and quality. For example, many of the homes could have timber foundations that are susceptible to rot without proper treatment and maintenance. 7. Moreover, the area is low-lying and near the shore of Lake Erie. The ground in

the area comprises discontinuous deposits of imported fill, peat, and organic and inorganic clays and silts of variable thickness. The compressible soils are generally less than six metres thick and rest on incompressible limestone bedrock. Peat is one of the most compressible soils in nature and, if not treated properly prior to development, will always lead to settlement over time. Yet there appears to have been no consistent site preparation in the Rodney Street area prior to construction of the houses. 8. In addition, the discontinuous and variable nature of the ground conditions means

that, while the ground is generally compressible, it is not uniformly compressible, even within a single property. In other words, each house is subject to its own set of variable ground

conditions, which even in the best of situations in this area would make the house a candidate for settlement over time. Thus, we were not surprised to observe, on visual inspection from the street, a house on the southwest end of Rodney Street displaying noticeable signs of historic settlement with uncracked concrete skirts cast outside previously damaged foundation walls. 9. Factors that could likely cause or contribute to the damage of any particular home,

especially in such ground conditions, include (i) poor maintenance; (ii) excavation work on the property (iii) poor drainage conditions on the property; (iv) aging; (v) poor site development; (vi) poor construc tion; (vii) poor interior renovations; (viii) additions to the home and construction of adjacent homes; and (ix) the accumulated or combined effects of all or some of the above.

-410. We understand that, notwithstanding the favourable conditions for ground

settlement in this area and the numerous individual factors that would induce or aggravate settlement in such conditions, it has been alleged that the recent groundwater operations at Incos facility are primarily responsible for damage that some homes in this area display. We note that there is no data that shows settlement in the area; much less any correlation of settlement to pumping. We also note that there is no groundwater data that shows pressure reduction in the soil profile and no calculation that de monstrates that this pressure reduction could have caused damaging settlement. 11. I am advised by Mr. Dave Evans, M.Sc., a hydrogeologist with Klohn Crippen,

that Inco began groundwater studies in 1994 as part of developing a closure plan for the Port Colborne facility. In May 1995, Inco installed two small four-inch test wells within the fractured limestone aquifer one screening the upper fractured bedrock and the other screening a deeper fracture at about 15 m etres. Pumping tests on these wells indicated that hydraulic capture of the contaminant plume could be achieved using a network of similar pumping wells. These test wells were intended to ascertain the feasibility of a purge well system and themselves captured only small amounts of water. In 1998, these four-inch wells were re-drilled to ten- and eightinch diameters and four additional ten- inch wells were installed in the limestone bedrock at two other locations. The comple te purge well system has been in operation for about three years and draws water solely from two fractures in the bedrock aquifer. 12. There are three well sites in total. Homes in the Rodney Street area range in

distance from the purge wells from 20 metres to about 300 metres. All other factors being equal, any drawdown effect will decrease with distance from the well pumping sites.

-513. The purge wells extract groundwater from fractures in the bedrock which is below There is no extraction of groundwater directly from the

the compressible soil layers.

compressible soil layers. Low permeability silts and clays may isolate the more compressible peats from the groundwater extraction zone. Moreover, surface water is evident in several locations in the Rodney Street area which is an indication that the groundwater table in the soils has not been reduced. 14. In all events, before a responsible engineer could determine whether the purge

wells are a significant cause of settlement damage to any given home in this area, he or she would have to investigate and consider a host of site-specific factors. In addition to the factors listed above, the engineer would have to also consider the homes distance from the purge wells (which, as noted, is highly variable), the homes proximity to the lake, the effect of the purge wells on the particular propertys soil given its distance from the wells and other potential sources of watering and dewatering near the h ome (including seasonal and climatic conditions, the lake, storm runoff, local sewer work and other excavations) and their relative significance for the condition of the local soil. 15. Moreover, before causation could be assigned for damage at any given home, the Photographs and other

home itself and its damage would have to be analyzed carefully.

historical evidence would have to be examined and compared to assess when and how quickly the damage occurred. Likewise, the source, progress, nature and degree of the damage at the home would have to be studied. 16. In short, determining the cause or causes of damage to any given property in the

Rodney Street area would require a careful study and evaluation of that property, its history, its construction quality, local ground conditions and drainage, the long term settlement rate in the

-6area, the nature and timing of the damage, regional factors such as lake lowering, and numerous other factors particular to that property.

SWORN BEFORE ME at the City of Richmond, in the Province of British Columbia, on March ____, 2002. Bryan D. Watts, P. Eng. Commissioner for Taking Affidavits