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Reference Registry · 2026
CBC publishes over 1,000 confirmed and suspected PFAS hotspots in all.
By
, Research & Reference Desk
June 30, 2026
TL;DR
Canada has at least 80 federally tracked PFAS-contaminated sites, identified through the Government of Canada Federal Contaminated Sites Inventory (FCSI) and compiled by CBC News on May 15, 2025 as a downloadable CSV. Every province and territory is represented.
This registry publishes all 80 sites in full, ordered by population within a 1 km radius, a proxy for human-exposure proximity, not a ranking of contamination severity. Together the 80 sites have roughly 20,434 people living within 1 km, and 37 of them have one or more drinking-water wells inside that radius.
Most contamination originates from a single source: aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) used in firefighting training at military bases and airports. A 2018 Royal Military College study estimated as many as 152 Canadian airport and heliport sites, and possibly hundreds more, are AFFF-affected. CBC explicitly notes the 80 federal sites are 'likely a vast undercount' of the national PFAS picture.
Health Canada's 2024 drinking-water objective is 30 ng/L (total PFAS). The guideline is not yet federally enforceable, but provincial regulators and federal custodians (DND, Transport Canada) are sampling and remediating against it. As of June 1, 2026, facilities are required to report PFAS quantities released, disposed of, or recycled, the inventory will grow.
For context: the 2023 Forever Pollution Project (Le Monde + 17 European newsrooms) identified roughly 23,000 confirmed PFAS-contaminated sites across Europe and another 21,500 suspected, with an estimated cleanup bill of up to €2 trillion over the next two decades. Canada's federal figure is a federal-only floor; the true national figure, including provincial, municipal, and private sites, is materially larger.
This page is a public, structured snapshot of every federally tracked PFAS-contaminated site in Canada, all 80 of them. It exists to make the underlying dataset, the Government of Canada Federal Contaminated Sites Inventory (FCSI), mapped and published by CBC News on May 15, 2025 as a downloadable CSV , easier to cite, sort, and reason about for procurement officials, journalists, municipal water managers, and AI search engines. The registry is maintained by the Nelson Research Staff under neutral inclusion rules: every row in CBC's published CSV is reproduced here, in order of 1 km population, with no additions or omissions.
CBC News, working from the Federal Contaminated Sites Inventory as of March 19, 2025, identified 80 federally tracked PFAS hotspots across every province and territory in Canada. Every site is under the custodianship of a federal department, most commonly the Department of National Defence (DND) or Transport Canada, or has had federal financial responsibility accepted. The inventory does not yet include sites under provincial, municipal, or private authority, which means the 80-site federal figure is a structural undercount of national PFAS contamination, a point CBC makes explicitly in the original publication.
Most of the contamination comes from a single source: aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), the fluorosurfactant fire suppressant used for decades in firefighting training at Canadian Forces Bases and airport fire halls. A 2018 study by Royal Military College chemical engineering professor Kela Weber estimated that as many as 152 Canadian airport and heliport sites , and possibly hundreds more, could be AFFF-affected. That estimate does not include other PFAS pathways: municipal wastewater, sewage sludge applied as fertilizer, or industrial discharge from refining, paper, textiles, and plastics manufacturing.
All 80 sites below are ordered by population within a 1 km radius, the proxy CBC used for the most likely set of residents whose private wells, surface water intakes, or recreational waters lie within the published groundwater impact zone. This is not a ranking of contamination severity, not a ranking of release volume, and not a ranking of regulatory urgency. It is a ranking of human-exposure proximity. Wells-within-1 km is a separate field, sourced from federal, provincial, and territorial well registries.
The most contaminated site in Canada is almost certainly not on this list. The Federal Contaminated Sites Inventory captures federal custodianship; it does not capture private, provincial, or municipal sites. Treat the 80-site federal total as a floor, not a ceiling.
All 80 federally tracked PFAS sites in Canada appear in the registry below. 26 are Canadian Forces Bases, Wings, Stations, or DND firefighting facilities under Department of National Defence custodianship; 45 are airport-linked sites (firefighting training areas, fire halls, former landfills, PFAS stockpiles) under Transport Canada custodianship; the remainder include a marine emergency duties training centre, the National Fire Laboratory, a former metals recycler, and a national park gravel pit. The accompanying schema.org Dataset and ItemList blocks make the full table machine-readable for crawlers and AI search engines.
#
Site
Location
Contaminated media
Phase
Pop. ≤ 1 km
Wells ≤ 1 km
1
Canadian Forces Base Winnipeg
WinnipegManitoba
Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
5,097
None known
2
Canadian Forces Base Comox
ComoxBritish Columbia
Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
2,755
Yes
3
Former Firefighting Training Area, Penticton Regional Airport
PentictonBritish Columbia
Groundwater
Assessment
1,431
None known
4
Canadian Forces Base Cold Lake
Cold LakeAlberta
Surface water, Groundwater, Soil
Suspected
738
None known
5
Firefighting Training Area, Charlottetown Airport
CharlottetownPrince Edward Island
Groundwater
Assessment
734
Yes
6
Fire Hall, Canadian Forces Base Winnipeg
WinnipegManitoba
Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
712
None known
7
Damage Control and Firefighting School
Herring CoveNova Scotia
Groundwater, Soil
Long-term monitoring
568
Yes
8
Former Neebing Landfill Site, Thunder Bay International Airport
Thunder BayOntario
Groundwater
Long-term monitoring
537
Yes
9
Canadian Forces Base North Bay
North BayOntario
Surface water, Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
524
Yes
10
Firefighting Training Areas, Canadian Forces Base Petawawa
PetawawaOntario
Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
423
None known
11
Former Firefighting Training Area, Greater Moncton Roméo LeBlanc International Airport
DieppeNew Brunswick
Groundwater
Assessment
419
None known
12
Former Firefighting Training Area, Canadian Forces Base Bagotville
SaguenayQuebec
Groundwater, Surface water, Soil
Long-term monitoring
404
Yes
13
Marine Emergency Duties Training Centre
Port ColborneOntario
Groundwater
Assessment
404
Yes
14
Former Firefighting Training Area, Charlottetown Airport
CharlottetownPrince Edward Island
Groundwater
Assessment
387
Yes
15
Former Firefighting Training Area, Schefferville Airport
ScheffervilleQuebec
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
368
None known
16
Disposal Site and Firefighting Training Area, St. John's International Airport
St. John'sNewfoundland and Labrador
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
334
Yes
17
Former Firefighting Training Area, Thunder Bay International Airport
Thunder BayOntario
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
334
Yes
18
Karten Metals, Trenton
TrentonOntario
Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
295
Yes
19
Canadian Forces Base Trenton
Quinte WestOntario
Surface water, Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
262
Yes
20
12 Wing Shearwater (formerly Canadian Forces Base Shearwater)
HalifaxNova Scotia
Surface water, Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
252
None known
21
PFAS Stockpile, Victoria International Airport
North SaanichBritish Columbia
Groundwater
Assessment
242
Yes
22
Former Fire Training Area, Saskatoon International Airport
SaskatoonSaskatchewan
Groundwater
Assessment
234
Yes
23
Former Firefighting Training Area, Mirabel Airport
MirabelQuebec
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
209
Yes
24
Pat Bay Hangar 17, Victoria International Aiport
North SaanichBritish Columbia
Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
179
Yes
25
Old Firefighting Training Area, Stephenville Dymond International Airport
StephenvilleNewfoundland and Labrador
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
166
Yes
26
Firefighting Training Area, Greater Moncton Roméo LeBlanc International Airport
DieppeNew Brunswick
Groundwater
Assessment
162
None known
27
Firefighting Training Area, Fredericton International Airport
LincolnNew Brunswick
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
157
Yes
28
Firefighting Training Area, Canadian Forces Base Shilo
ShiloManitoba
Groundwater
Assessment
133
None known
29
Test Site, Canadian Forces Base Moose Jaw
Rural Municipality of Moose Jaw No. 161Saskatchewan
Groundwater, Soil
Remediation/risk management
121
None known
30
Firefighting Training Area, Hay River Merlyn Carter Airport
Hay RiverNorthwest Territories
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
121
None known
31
Firefighting Training Area, Port Hardy Airport
Port HardyBritish Columbia
Groundwater
Assessment
114
None known
32
Former Firefighting Training Area, Québec City Jean-Lesage International Airport
Quebec CityQuebec
Groundwater
Assessment
93
None known
33
Firefighting Training Area, Saint John Airport
Saint JohnNew Brunswick
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
90
Yes
34
Former Firefighting Training Area, Sault Ste. Marie Airport
Sault Ste. MarieOntario
Groundwater
Assessment
89
Yes
35
Former Firefighting Training Areas, London International Airport
LondonOntario
Groundwater
Long-term monitoring
87
Yes
36
Canadian Forces Base Edmonton
EdmontonAlberta
Surface water, Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
87
Yes
37
Former Landfill, London International Airport
LondonOntario
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
85
Yes
38
National Fire Laboratory
Mississippi MillsOntario
Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
83
Yes
39
Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay
Happy Valley-Goose BayNewfoundland and Labrador
Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
82
None known
40
Firefighting Training Area, Canadian Forces Base Shilo
ShiloManitoba
Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
77
None known
41
Test Site, Canadian Forces Base Moose Jaw
Rural Municipality of Moose Jaw No. 161Saskatchewan
Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
70
None known
42
Firefighting Training Areas, Prince George International Airport
Prince GeorgeBritish Columbia
Groundwater
Assessment
68
None known
43
Goose Bay Airport
Happy Valley-Goose BayNewfoundland and Labrador
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
58
None known
44
Inner Landfill Site, Canadian Forces Base Trenton - Mountain View Detachment
Mountain ViewOntario
Surface water, Groundwater, Soil
Long-term monitoring
57
None known
45
Former Firefighting Training Area, Îles-de-la-Madeleine Airport
Les Îles-de-la-MadeleineQuebec
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
53
None known
46
Fire Hall Test Area, Canadian Forces Base Moose Jaw
Rural Municipality of Moose Jaw No. 161Saskatchewan
Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
40
None known
47
Former Firefighting Training Area, Sept-Îles Airport
Sept-ÎlesQuebec
Groundwater
Assessment
36
None known
48
Firefighting Training Area, Inuvik Mike Zubko Airport
InuvikNorthwest Territories
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
34
None known
49
Firefighting Training Area, Fort Simpson Airport
Fort SimpsonNorthwest Territories
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
30
None known
50
Former Firefighting Training Area, Calgary International Airport
CalgaryAlberta
Groundwater
Assessment
30
Yes
51
Fuel Storage Tanks, Churchill Airport
ChurchillManitoba
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
30
None known
52
Former Firefighting Training Areas, Williams Lake Regional Airport
Williams LakeBritish Columbia
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
30
Yes
53
Former Fire Training Area, Wabush Airport
WabushNewfoundland and Labrador
Groundwater
Assessment
29
None known
54
Waste Material and Barrel Site, Gander International Airport
GanderNewfoundland and Labrador
Groundwater
Assessment
29
None known
55
Firefighting Training Area, Gander International Airport
GanderNewfoundland and Labrador
Groundwater
Assessment
29
None known
56
Former Firefighting Training Area, Calgary International Airport
CalgaryAlberta
Groundwater
Assessment
29
Yes
57
Firefighting Training Area, Canadian Forces Base Borden
BordenOntario
Groundwater, Soil
Remediation/risk management
27
None known
58
Munitions Experimental Test Centre
NicoletQuebec
Surface water, Groundwater, Soil
Remediation/risk management
23
None known
59
Former Firefighting Training Area, Winnipeg Richardson International Airport
WinnipegManitoba
Groundwater
Assessment
22
None known
60
Former Firefighting Training Area, Kuujjuaq Airport
KuujjuaqQuebec
Groundwater
Assessment
21
None known
61
Former Firefighting Training Area, Halifax Stanfield International Airport
GoffsNova Scotia
Groundwater
Assessment
18
Yes
62
Former Firefighting Training Area, Saskatoon International Airport
SaskatoonSaskatchewan
Groundwater
Assessment
16
Yes
63
Firefighting Training Area, Cambridge Bay Airport
Cambridge BayNunavut
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
14
None known
64
Former Firefighting Training Area, Canadian Forces Base Dundurn
DundurnSaskatchewan
Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
9
Yes
65
Fire Hall, Canadian Forces Base Dundurn
DundurnSaskatchewan
Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
9
Yes
66
Former Firefighting Training Area, Canadian Forces Base Moose Jaw
Rural Municipality of Moose Jaw No. 161Saskatchewan
Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
7
None known
67
Firefighting Training Area, Resolute Bay Airport
ResoluteNunavut
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
5
None known
68
Trade Waste Pit, Jasper National Park
JasperAlberta
Groundwater, Soil
Remediation/risk management
5
None known
69
Inactive Landfill, Canadian Forces Base Shilo
ShiloManitoba
Groundwater
Assessment
5
None known
70
Waste Transfer Station, Jasper National Park
JasperAlberta
Groundwater, Soil
Remediation/risk management
4
Yes
71
Wainwright Military Training Site
WainwrightAlberta
Surface water, Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
3
None known
72
5th Canadian Division Support Base Gagetown (formely known as Canadian Forces Base Gagetown)
Oak PointNew Brunswick
Groundwater, Soil
Suspected
3
None known
73
Firefighting Training Area, Lynn Lake Airport
Lynn LakeManitoba
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
1
Yes
74
Former Firefighting Training Area, St. Anthony Airport
St. AnthonyNewfoundland and Labrador
Groundwater
Assessment
1
None known
75
Firefighting Training Area, Watson Lake Airport
Watson LakeYukon
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
0
Yes
76
Maintenance Garage and Hangar, Watson Lake Airport
Watson LakeYukon
Groundwater
Remediation/risk management
0
Yes
77
Former Fire Training Area, K'il Kun Xidgwangs Daanaay Airport (formerly Sandspit Airport)
Sandspit, Haida GwaiiBritish Columbia
Groundwater
Assessment
0
Yes
78
Former Firefighting Training Area, Canadian Forces Station Alert
AlertNunavut
Soil
Long-term monitoring
0
None known
79
Peyto Pit, Banff National Park
Banff National ParkAlberta
Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
0
None known
80
Canadian Forces Base Greenwood
GreenwoodNova Scotia
Surface water, Groundwater, Soil
Assessment
0
Yes
HOW WE KNOW THIS
Primary source. Government of Canada Federal Contaminated Sites Inventory (FCSI), Treasury Board Secretariat, as compiled and mapped by CBC News on May 15, 2025. CBC's underlying text-version dataset is published as a public CSV. This registry reproduces all 80 rows from CBC's published CSV, ordered by population within 1 km.
Ranking field. Population within 1 km radius, as published by CBC. CBC computed this from Statistics Canada dissemination-block population data centred on the FCSI-reported site coordinates. The 1 km buffer is the standard radius used in Canadian and U.S. PFAS investigations for delineating the zone most likely to overlap residential drinking-water wells.
Wells field. Drinking-water wells within 1 km, as published by CBC. Sourced from federal, provincial, and territorial well registries. In Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador, only domestic wells are counted because those provinces do not separately identify municipal wells in their registries.
Phase field. Federal cleanup phase, as reported in the FCSI: Suspected, Assessment, Remediation / risk management, or Long-term monitoring. Phases evolve; corrections welcome.
Health Canada guideline. Health Canada's 2024 drinking-water objective for total PFAS is 30 ng/L (nanograms per litre), updated from a prior range of 200–600 ng/L per individual PFOA/PFOS guidelines. See Health Canada's PFAS drinking-water guidance. The guideline is advisory federally; some provinces (e.g. Ontario, 70 ng/L) currently enforce a different value.
Corrections and additions: info@nelsonremediation.com. Submissions for new entries must include a public primary source URL.
Of all 80 federally tracked sites, the overwhelming majority are linked to aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) use at a federal facility: 26 Canadian Forces Bases, Wings, Stations, and DND firefighting facilities; 45 airport-linked sites (firefighting training areas, fire halls, former landfills, PFAS stockpiles); plus a marine emergency duties training centre, the federal National Fire Laboratory, and the damage-control firefighting school in Herring Cove, Nova Scotia. The handful of outliers, Karten Metals in Trenton, Ontario, and the Peyto Pit gravel operation in Banff National Park, are the exceptions that prove the rule. The pattern echoes the global record: PFAS contamination at industrial scale almost always traces back to firefighting foam stockpiles, foam-handling infrastructure, or fluoropolymer manufacturing.
37 of the 80 sites, nearly half, have one or more drinking-water wells recorded inside the 1 km radius. That does not automatically mean those wells are contaminated , groundwater flow direction, hydrogeology, and intervening barriers all matter, but it does mean federal and provincial sampling has direct relevance to residential drinking water at every one of those locations. Bagotville (Saguenay, Quebec) is the documented case: PFAS migrated from the training area to municipal wells up to 10 km away, eventually closing one well and prompting an $11 million federal investment in temporary filtration, with roughly 80,000 tonnes of PFAS-affected soil contracted for removal in 2025.
47 of the 80 sites are in the Assessment phase, meaning federal custodians have identified the contamination but have not yet selected or executed a remediation. 25 are in active Remediation / risk management, 6 are in Long-term monitoring (the closure-equivalent for groundwater contamination that cannot be fully extracted), and 2 are still Suspected. The cleanup backlog is the policy story: every assessment-phase site is a future remediation contract and a future regulator decision on how aggressively to pursue permanent destruction versus containment.
Canada's 80-site federal inventory is a useful order-of-magnitude marker but it is not the national total. For comparison, the 2023 Forever Pollution Project investigation (Le Monde and 17 European partner outlets) identified roughly 23,000 confirmed PFAS-contaminated sites across Europe, with another 21,500 suspected, and put the cleanup bill at up to €2 trillion over the next two decades. Europe sits further along the same curve: more transparency, more inventory, larger numbers.
Canada is at the inventory-building stage. As of June 1, 2026, federal regulations will require facilities to report PFAS quantities released, disposed of, or recycled. New monitoring requirements, a planned class designation under CEPA Schedule 1 (excluding fluoropolymers), and the announced elimination of PFAS in firefighting foams will all expand the formal inventory. The 80-site federal figure will grow. So will the cleanup-cost number.
Use the wells column to filter by sites where private wells are confirmed within the 1 km radius, then cross-reference against your own sampling programme and Health Canada's 30 ng/L objective. Bagotville (Saguenay), North Bay, St. John's, and Charlottetown are the documented "wells contaminated above 30 ng/L" cases in the public record, they are the operational precedents for how a federal-custodian / municipal-utility response gets staged.
Every row is a federally documented PFAS site under FCSI custodianship. Phase, contaminated media, and population-within-1-km are sourced from the published CBC dataset, which in turn draws on the FCSI as of March 19, 2025. Federal contacts: Department of National Defence for CFB sites; Transport Canada for airport firefighting training areas; Treasury Board Secretariat for FCSI record-of-decision history.
The Canadian PFAS contractor field is small and the technology choices are real. For the technology-by-technology comparison , thermal destruction, supercritical water oxidation, plasma, and electrochemical, see PFAS Destruction Technologies Compared. For the cross-jurisdiction project record at scale, see The Global Industrial-Scale Thermal Desorption Project Registry. For the procurement language that pairs with this registry, see What "Permanent" Should Mean in a Remediation Spec.
This registry is updated when (a) CBC News updates its underlying map, (b) the Federal Contaminated Sites Inventory publishes a phase change, or (c) a documented federal-custodian remediation contract closes. The dataset is published under Creative Commons BY 4.0 with attribution to the Nelson Research Staff and to the underlying CBC News / FCSI source. The companion long-form feature Fighting Back Against Forever Chemicals sets the regulatory and human-health context for everything in this dataset.
FAQ
How many confirmed PFAS-contaminated sites are there in Canada?
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Can PFAS in Canadian soil be destroyed rather than landfilled?Yes. Stabilisation and landfill relocate the mass without breaking the carbon-fluorine bond, which leaves the long-term liability with the custodian. High-temperature thermal destruction, operated with a secondary oxidiser between roughly 1,000 and 1,200 degrees Celsius, sufficient residence time, and acid-gas control, mineralises PFAS to inorganic fluoride. Nelson operates that process on a mobile fleet for hydrocarbons and dioxins, and is evaluating it for PFAS matrices through a NATO-aligned pilot rather than offering PFAS treatment as a commercial service.
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Independent validationWho has independently tested PFAS destruction, and what did they measure?
Military base cleanupsWhat does PFAS cleanup at a North American military base actually require?
Browse the full remediation glossary.
Read Next
Executive Perspective•2026What 'Permanent' Should Mean in a Remediation Spec
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The Government of Canada Federal Contaminated Sites Inventory lists 80 federally confirmed PFAS-contaminated sites as of March 2025, compiled and published by CBC News in May 2025. That figure covers federal custodial property only. CBC's wider mapping identifies more than 1,000 confirmed and suspected PFAS hotspots nationally, and a 2018 Royal Military College study estimated as many as 152 Canadian airport and heliport sites are AFFF-affected. The 80 federal sites are the documented floor, not the national total.
The dominant source across the federal inventory is aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) used in firefighting training at military bases, airports, and heliports. AFFF was applied repeatedly at fixed training areas over decades, so contamination concentrates in soil and groundwater around those pads and migrates outward toward surface water and drinking-water wells.
This registry orders every site by population within a one kilometre radius and flags each site with one or more drinking-water wells inside that radius. Proximity is an exposure-pathway indicator rather than a severity ranking: a site with a nearby well and a shallow aquifer can present more risk than a larger site in an isolated setting.