For a 25 year period between the 1930s and the 1960s, uranium and radium ore was shipped by barge from Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories, through a system of lakes and rivers to docking sites at Waterways (now Fort McMurray), Alberta where it was then sent by railway to a refinery in Port Hope, Ontario. Contamination at several sites occurred with the accidental spillage of some materials, primarily at the transfer points.

Remediation work in Fort McMurray first began in 1992.  Between 1993 and 1996, the LLRWMO excavated and removed mildly contaminated soil from eight riverside properties. The completion of the Fort McMurray Waterways project in the summer of 2002 marked the resolution of a decade-long endeavour to clean up and safely manage about 42,500 m³ of marginally contaminated soil from several sites in this northern Alberta city.  The Waterways property is now part of the community's public park and trail system. The mound is a local, closed long-term term facility monitored by the LLRWMO.

LLRWMO continues to provide annual field inspections of selected sites along the Northern Transportation Route (NTR). This is in addition to the ongoing annual monitoring and analysis of groundwater, leachate and radiation in Fort McMurray and the surrounding areas. This program is conducted pursuant to the agreement between the LLRMWO and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, and complies with requirements of the CNSC.