http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/mine-tailings-in-pickle-lake-1.3820133

Provincial orders have kept Pickle Lake from using former industrial land for redevelopment. (Jeff Walters CBC)

The most northern municipality in Ontario needs some help to clean up an old industrial site — so it can be redeveloped.

Pickle Lake's industrial park has old mine tailings in it and Highway 599 — the gateway to ice roads in the north — runs right through the old mine waste site.

• Development restrictions around old mine site 'unacceptable,' says Pickle Lake mayor

The province won't allow development of the area due to several sinkholes, neither will it allow for development of the Wataynikeap Power line through Pickle Lake, which would bring in economic spinoffs, especially during construction.

Development has long been restricted in some areas because of contaminated tailings containing arsenic, left behind by the Central Patricia Mine, which closed in the early 50s, said Pickle Lake Mayor Karl Hopf.

Lynn Arnold-Cox, Pickel Lake's economic development officer, hopes the town can one day capitalize on its under-used land. (Jeff Walters CBC)

But this area is key to the town's development plans, said Lynn Arnold-Cox, the township's economic development officer. So much so that the town has held back its official plan until they get some consensus on where they can begin work.

"We're kind of left with what's here now and we're looking for an innovative solution, and to get moving. Because, it's holding us, it's holding us back," Arnold-Cox said.

"With the Ring of Fire hopefully going forward, the road access through Pickle Lake. With Watay Power, we're going to need to provide services here. We want our town to grow," she said.

Arnold-Cox said plans to rehabilitate the site could include planting vegetation, including mushrooms or sunflowers.

The tailings area around Pickel Lake may bey the key to an economic revitalization, the town hopes. (Jeff Walters CBC)