Mount Polley: A wake-up call for Canada's mining industry

[G_j]

http://davidsuzuki.org/blogs/science-matters/2014/08/mount-polley-a-wake-up-call-for-canadas-mining-industry/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+davidsuzuki%2Fscience-matters+%28David+Suzuki+Foundation+-+Science+Matters%29



August 28, 2014

By David Suzuki with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Communications Specialist Jodi Stark.
When a tailings pond broke at the Mount Polley gold and copper mine in south-central B.C., spilling millions of cubic metres of waste into a salmon-bearing stream, B.C. Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett called it an "extremely rare" occurrence, the first in 40 years for mines operating here.
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He failed to mention the 46 "dangerous or unusual occurrences" that B.C's chief inspector of mines reported at tailings ponds in the province between 2000 and 2012, as well as breaches at non-operating mine sites.

This spill was predictable. Concerns were raised about Mount Polley before the breach. CBC reported that B.C.'s Environment Ministry issued several warnings about the amount of water in the pond to mine owner Imperial Metals.

With 50 mines operating in B.C. — and many others across Canada — we can expect more incidents, unless we reconsider how we're extracting resources.

Sudden and severe failure is a risk for all large tailings dams — Mount Polley's waste pond covered about four square kilometres, roughly the size of Vancouver's Stanley Park. As higher-grade deposits become increasingly scarce, mining companies are opting for lower-grade alternatives that create more tailings. As tailings ponds grow bigger and contain more water and waste than ever before, they also become riskier. The average height of a Canadian tailings dam doubled from 120 metres in the 1960s to 240 metres today. Alberta writer Andrew Nikiforuk likens increasing mining industry risks to those of the oil sands.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/08/08/skin-falling-off-salmon-mount-polley_n_5663218.html

The Huffington Post B.C.
Posted: 08/08/2014 6:08 pm EDT Updated: 37 minutes ago

Reports of sickly salmon with skin that’s peeling off have prompted a First Nations fishing shutdown in British Columbia’s Cariboo region, which was hit by a mining waste spill this week.

“We are closing all fishing activities down the river immediately, fish are being found very sickly as we speak,” read a notice issued Thursday by the chiefs of the Xaxli’p, Sek’wel’was and Tsk’way’laxw First Nations near Lillooet.

The Secwepemc Fisheries Commission issued a similar advisory telling its members to “exercise caution and stop fishing until further notice.”

A dam holding back the tailings pond at the Mount Polley gold and copper mine in central B.C. failed on Monday, releasing 10 million cubic metres of water and 4.5 million cubic metres of silt into nearby creeks, rivers and lakes.

Michael LeBourdais, chief of the Whispering Pines/Clinton Indian Band, posted a photo of a salmon with its skin peeled back on his Twitter account. The fish was caught by his nephew in Six Mile Lake.

“What happened is when you catch a salmon, you take a newspaper and you wipe the slime off so it keeps it from sliding off the board when you're splitting it open,” LeBourdais told The Huffington Post B.C.

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https://mobile.twitter.com/VanObserver/status/498521796086603776/photo/1


http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/news/mount-polley-spill/

Published on
Friday, August 08, 2014
byCommon Dreams

In the Wake of Environmental Disaster at Tailings Pond, Canadians Call for Accountability
Water use ban still in effect after Mount Polley tailings pond breach
byDeirdre Fulton, staff writer

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/08/08/wake-environmental-disaster-tailings-pond-canadians-call-accountability

While preliminary test results show the water quality near the site of the massive tailings-pond breach this week in British Columbia meets drinking-water standards, environmentalists and First Nations leaders say many questions remain to be answered.

The ban on water use remains in effect while officials do further testing. In addition, the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans put a ban on fishing for salmon in the affected waterways. Donated supplies of bottled water were delivered to residents in Likely, B.C. on Friday morning, while Ministry of Energy and Mines inspectors continued their investigation and interview process.

But critics charge that the government's response to the disaster is too little, too late.

According to the Globe and Mail, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, "believes there has been a concerted effort to play down the effects of the spill and that too many questions are unanswered, particularly on any earlier problems the Mount Polley facility may have had. If the province does not provide adequate answers, he said, his organization will call for a public inquiry."

In a statement, Phillip said:

Like the Exxon Valdez, Mount Polley will be synonymous with one of the most disastrous environmental events in British Columbia. The frightening fact is both environmental disasters could have been prevented if there was vigorous government oversight by an effectively resourced agency bound by robust legislative and regulatory environmental safeguards. What we have now in BC and Canada, as a consequence of weak environmental review procedures and the federal omnibus bills C-38 and C-45, are repugnant and reprehensible processes of rubber-stamp approvals that shamelessly pander to industry and tragically at the great expense of environmental devastation.

At an emergency rally outside the Toronto Stock Exchange Thursday, Secwepemc Women Warrior Society spokeswoman Kanahus Manuel said the government and Imperial Metals were "not acting fast enough" to clean up the mess. The Society has been fighting the mine for years.

Watch:

[malaise]

1. One day humanity will be brave enough to identify the real

barbarians

[G_j]

2. I certainly hope

it is sooner than later...