Canada has one of the worst records on the planet for making polluters like Imperial Metals pay.
The company responsible for the Mount Polley mine spill—one of the largest environmental disasters in Canadian history—has found out it’s not going to face any charges in British Columbia.
The news likely has billionaire Murray Edwards, owner of Imperial Metals and the Mount Polley mine (and the Calgary Flames) toasting with his rich friends in London (where he lives to avoid paying taxes).
If you’re not in BC, there’s a chance the aerial images of the disaster haven’t already scarred you forever. This is what the collapsed tailings pond at the Mount Polley mine looked like in August 2014.
The resulting spill was so enormous it lasted for 12 hours and, according to those who lived nearby, sounded as loud as a jet plane flying low overhead. The force of the 24 million cubic metres of mine waste, containing mercury, arsenic, selenium, copper, and other heavy metals, scoured the former Hazeltine Creek, tearing a 150-metre strip of forest clean from its roots.
Although a superficial cleanup of the creekbed has since taken place, the contaminated mine waste that entered Quesnel Lake—the source of drinking water for residents of Likely, BC, and home to about a quarter of the province’s sockeye salmon population—remains there to this day.
For the rest of this article: https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/59k38q/still-no-charges-for-the-company-behind-canadas-largest-mining-spill