Mining Environmental Accidents, Pollution, Tailing Dams and Abandoned Mines – Page 64

Mount Polley Mine — Maybe if we tried putting red tape on the breach – by Pete McMartin (Vancouver Sun – August 11, 2014)

August 12, 2014

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

It’s quiet out there. Perhaps it’s chagrin. Perhaps it’s the nausea caused by the prospect of a stock plummet. But in the muddy wake of Mount Polley, you don’t hear much noise emanating from the mining industry and its government acolytes.

Yes, Mines Minister Bill Bennett assured us the disaster has caused him to lose sleep. (Poor man! Would that he was awake earlier on his watch.)

And the Mining Association of B.C., in response to Mount Polley, has affected an air of scientific curiosity, as coroners might at an autopsy. It is waiting, as was explained to the public, to see what caused the containment pond breach. Meanwhile, Angela Waterman, the association’s vice-president of environment and technical affairs, endeavoured to dampen the disaster’s impact by referring to it as “an anomaly.” (As in, “Hey, the tsunami was just an anomaly.”)

In the past, the mining industry wasn’t so shy about making noise. For years, it complained loudly and often about government interference. It’s what Jessica Clogg, the executive director and senior counsel of West Coast Environmental Law, called “the steady drumbeat for deregulation.”

Both federal and provincial governments got the message. New regimes of deregulation followed. So, eventually, did “an anomaly.”

Mining industry at a crossroads – by Bernard von Schulmann (Mining.com – August 10, 2014)

August 11, 2014

http://www.mining.com/

There was a time not long ago in BC when the main environmental pariah in the province was the forest industry, but that is no longer so. Over the last 15 years the forest industry changed how it worked and forged serious partnerships with First Nations. It saw it had to change and it did. The sub-surface industries are now at a similar crossroads: they have to change or close up shop.

For the mining and fossil fuel energy sectors it is not a good situation to have become the number one environmental enemy, but this is made worse with how the industries deal with the public, rural communities and First Nations.

The industries could be doing a lot to improve their situation but they are acting like the BC forest industry did in the 1980s and early 90s. On top of this we have the recent Tsilhqot’in decision and the Mount Polley mine tailings pond breach.

The Tsilhqot’in decision indicates that a significant part of BC is likely to have aboriginal title and for companies to operate on that land they will need First Nations consent. That consent is much easier to achieve when there is a positive relationship. Overall the mining industry, especially mineral exploration juniors, has not worked hard to build these sorts of relationships.

The New Prosperity gold mine project in the Chilcotin has had a tough time getting approvals to be built. Taseko Mines’s relationship with the Tsilhqot’in is at best awful and this was made no better when on June 26 the company issued a press release that denied the mine site had any aboriginal title issues.

What the Mount Polley Disaster Means for Mining Companies – by Steve Todoruk (Sprott Global.com – August 11, 2014)

August 11, 2014

http://sprottglobal.com/

The mining industry can’t give guarantees just as airlines can’t. Over the years we have seen several airplane crashes due to mechanical error that have resulted in many unfortunate deaths and injuries.

Prior to those accidents all of those passengers and all of their extended families knew that once those people boarded those planes that there was a slight chance of an air disaster but because flight travel is considered a necessity, all concerned accepted the chance they were taking.

Similar to the exhaustive engineering that goes into building airplanes to make them as safe as humanly possible, a great deal of engineering goes into designing mines to make them as safe as possible to prevent accidents that may harm people and the environment.

The mining engineering that goes into designing mines is supposed to make them as resistant as possible to accidents that may cost lives or destroy wildlife. But things don’t always go as planned.

Just days ago, a Canadian mining company, Imperial Metals Corp. (III-T), announced that their tailings pond wall had been breached in one area at their Mount Polley copper-gold mine in central British Columbia, Canada.

Lesson for BC: Mining Politics Can Be Terribly Corrosive – by Kristian Secher (The Tyee.ca – August 11, 2014)

August 11, 2014

http://thetyee.ca/

Consider Greece, where mistrust of Canadian mine safety helped spark massive revolt.

Friday’s blockade of the Imperial Metals’ Red Chris Mine site by members of the Tahltan Nation brings to mind scenes from another place, where plummeting faith in government safeguards after a rush to profit from resource extraction has fueled not just isolated protests but a full-scale political revolt tinged with violence.

That place is Greece, where two years ago I visited to report on the situation. My destination was the northernmost region of Greece, Halkidiki, the birthplace of Aristotle, embroiled in conflict after Vancouver-based Eldorado Gold scooped up most of the local mining industry and unveiled their billion dollar development plan in the austerity stricken region of Europe’s poorest country.

The gold grab made the empty state coffers in Athens rattle with joy but the people of Halkidiki were not as pleased. They had not forgotten the mess left behind by the previous Canadian owner TVX, (later Kinross Gold), nine years earlier and the prospect of renewed mining operations was not encouraging to the inhabitants of the tourism dependent region known for its pristine forests and sandy beaches.

TVX abandoned their properties in 2002 when Greece’s state council ruled that the potential risks of redeveloping the mines would exceed any benefits from the project. In 2003 ownership of the mining area was transferred to the state for a net sum of 11 million euros (C$16 million).

Tailings pond spill: What happens to effluent over time – by By Matt Kwong (CBC News British Columbia – August 08, 2014)

August 11, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia

Toxic slurry from mining operations often buried, revegetated after mines close, experts say after B.C. breach

Tailings — the slurry of water, finely ground rock, ore and chemical byproducts washed away during the mining process — never quite go away. The same goes for the risk of failure for even the best-engineered “tailings impoundment” dams, environmental experts say.

A sobering reminder came in the form of an environmental catastrophe this week in B.C. when the tailings pond overseen by Imperial Metals breached, spilling five million cubic metres of effluent into the Quesnel-Cariboo river system.

Asked by CBC’s Chris Hall how long it might take to eventually restore affected areas to their natural state, Ramsey Hart of MiningWatch Canada gave a grim assessment.

“I don’t think it will ever entirely be cleaned up,” said Hart, who researches mining issues, including waste management, the impacts of mining on aquatic ecosystems, and mining and indigenous rights.

Manmade tailings ponds, or reservoirs that use natural geologic features such as valleys or lakes to contain the mine waste, store the tailings solids in water to prevent their exposure to oxygen.

Canadian mine disaster raises tough questions about Minnesota nonferrous mines – by Aaron Brown (Minneapolis Star Tribune – August 7, 2014)

August 11, 2014

http://www.startribune.com/

Sometime in the middle of the night on Monday, Aug. 4, the dam holding together a tailings basin at a British Columbian copper and gold mine gave way, sending 1.3 billion gallons of tainted, sludgy water into local streams and lakes.

Officials tell residents in the closest town, Likely, B.C., not to use the water from several lakes and rivers near the Mount Polley Mine, including a precautionary ban stretching all the way to the well-known Fraser River. (And no, “Likely” is not a made-up name from a ham-handed eco-novel. It’s a real town named for an old mining boss named John A. Likely). Mount Polley is operated by Imperial Metals of Vancouver.

The CBC reports that Canadian and provincial officials now assess the full extent of the damage and how something like this even happened. Global News is reporting that Mount Polley Mine employees are saying that tailings pond breaches have happened before, just never to this extent. Meantime, the breach compromises the town’s drinking water and sidelines its tourism economy, which had co-existed with mining, for an indeterminate amount of time. Possibly a very long time.

Already, copper mining critics cite this disaster as Exhibit A that these mines threaten local ecosystems. Many here in Minnesota wonder: if this tailings pond breach can happen at an active mine in Canada, where regulations are similarly stringent to U.S. law, how on earth can we be confident in a tailings pond at a proposed nonferrous mine in northern Minnesota? After all, those tailings basins are supposed to last 500 years, according to PolyMet’s own Environmental Impact Statement estimates.

Tailings Ponds are the Biggest Environmental Disaster You’ve Never Heard Of – by Peter Moskowitz (Vice News – August 8, 2014)

August 11, 2014

https://news.vice.com/

The scale is hard to imagine: gray sludge, several feet deep, gushing with the force of a fire hose through streams and forest—coating everything in its path with ashy gunk. What happened on Monday might have been one of North America’s worst environmental disasters in decades, yet the news barely made it past the Canadian border.

Last Monday, a dam holding waste from the Mount Polley gold and copper mine in the remote Cariboo region of British Columbia broke, spilling 2.6 billion gallons of potentially toxic liquid and 1.3 billion gallons of definitely toxic sludge out into pristine lakes and streams. That’s about 6,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water and waste containing things like arsenic, mercury, and sulphur. Those substances are now mixed into the water that 300 people rely on for tap, hundreds from First Nations tribes rely on for hunting and fishing, and many others rely on for the tourism business.

“It’s an environmental disaster. It’s huge,” said Chief Ann Louie of the Williams Lake Indian Band, whose members live in the Cariboo region and use the land for hunting and fishing. “The spill has gone down Hazeltine Creek, which was 1.5 meters wide and is 150 meters wide… The damage done to that area, it’ll never come back. This will affect our First Nations for years and years.”

The waste came from a “tailings pond,” an open-air pit that mines use to store the leftovers of mining things like gold, copper, and, perhaps most notably in Canada, the tar sands—the oil-laden bitumen composites that have made the Keystone XL Pipeline so controversial.

Mount Polley spill could affect whole mining industry – by Sunny Dhillon (Globe and Mail – August 8, 2014)

August 8, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

VANCOUVER — B.C.’s mining association says the Mount Polley spill could lead to changes for the industry, even as First Nations leaders predicted the disaster will affect other resource projects and vowed to push for a public inquiry if they do not get the answers they are seeking.

Millions of cubic metres of waste spewed from a tailings pond into central B.C. waterways on Monday at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine, which is owned by Imperial Metals Corp.

Angela Waterman, vice-president of environment and technical affairs for the Mining Association of B.C., said much about the spill is unknown, but it could have consequences for other mining outfits when the results of investigations come out.

“We’ll have to wait for the report to find out what the underlying cause was, and everybody’s very interested in the findings. And from the findings there will always be learnings, and from that may come new recommendations for industry,” she said in an interview on Thursday.

Ms. Waterman called the spill “an anomaly,” and said she remains optimistic about the industry long-term. She also defended current regulations on how often mines must have inspections, which First Nations and conservation groups have decried as inadequate.

Water meets drinking criteria, but long-term effects unknown – by Andrea Woo (Globe and Mail – August 8, 2014)

August 8, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

VANCOUVER — The water quality near the site of the massive tailings-pond breach this week meets drinking-water standards, according to preliminary test results, but the long-term impact on fish habitats and other wildlife remains unknown.

A water-usage ban will remain in place until additional testing is completed.

Jennifer McGuire, executive director of regional operations at the B.C. Ministry of Environment, delivered the news Thursday afternoon at a public meeting in the rural community of Likely. With her were Premier Christy Clark, Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett and Interior Health medical health officer Trevor Corneil.

Medical health officers and water specialists collected samples from three sites at Quesnel Lake and looked at pH levels, turbidity, suspended and dissolved solids, E.coli, dissolved metals and more, Ms. McGuire said.

“All results came back meeting the requirements for Canadian and B.C. drinking-water standards,” she said to applause from residents. “This is very good news.”

Now Showing: Pebble Mine’s Disastrous Future at BC’s Mount Polley Mine – by Joel Reynolds (Huffington Post – August 7, 2014)

August 8, 2014

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/

Joel Reynolds is the Western Director and a senior attorney in the Los Angeles office of NRDC.

In the early morning of August 4, 2014, a major breach occurred in an earthen dam built to contain millions of tons of mining waste — called “tailings” — at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine in central British Columbia. Now, three days later, an estimated 1.3 billion gallons of contaminated tailings have spilled from the breached pond, sweeping untold volumes of waste and debris into the salmon stream and lake systems in the region and potentially threatening the Fraser River system to the west.

Previously pristine fishing, swimming, and summer vacation destinations like Polley Lake, Hazeltine Creek, and Quesnel Lake — including drinking water sources for the surrounding communities and residents — are now ground zero for toxicity, government health warnings, and “clean-up” – if indeed such a thing is actually possible.

Right now, before our very eyes through horrifying YouTube video, we are witnessing the mine disaster that the communities of Bristol Bay have feared — their “worst nightmare” — from the massive Pebble Mine. It is the toxic time bomb explosion that all of us who’ve fought the Pebble Mine have predicted could happen.

It is the catastrophic impact that, in its Bristol Bay watershed assessment, the EPA described as foreseeable in the event of a “tailings storage facility failure” — in layman’s terms, a dam breach — a finding the Pebble Limited Partnership (and its sole remaining company Northern Dynasty Minerals) have resoundingly and repeatedly challenged as groundless, as bad science, as a violation of their “right to due process.”

Group calls for government inspections of Sask. mine ponds (CBC News Saskatchewan – August 07, 2014)

August 8, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan

Mining companies currently hire independent consultants and present those reports to government

On the heels of one the the worst spill disasters in Canadian history, some people in Saskatchewan are worried about how this province protects and regulates tailings ponds.

It comes after the Mount Polley Mine tailings pond wall collapsed in B.C. Water, contaminated from years of mining, is flowing into nearby lakes and rivers.

In Saskatchewan, mining companies hire consultants for tailings pond inspections. Those reports are passed on to the Ministry of Environment for review.

Peter Prebble of the Saskatchewan Environmental Society said he would prefer the government do its own inspections of the tailings ponds and not rely solely on the company’s reports.

“There’s been a real tendency in Saskatchewan to encourage self regulation by companies, in other words, to encourage them to take more responsibility for ensuring that regulations are met. I’m worried that we’re moving too far in that direction,” he said.

In B.C., a total of 10 billion litres of water and 4.5 million cubic metres of metal-laden sand has leaked out of the tailings ponds.

No reason to be confident in environmental protection – by Barbara Yaffe (Vancouver Sun – August 7, 2014)

August 8, 2014

http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

Missteps give B.C. residents no reason to trust companies or government

Could there be a worse time in B.C. to have a tailings pond disaster?

Never mind that the salmon are spawning. A wee debate is taking place in this province about whether to sanction a pipeline to the coast and tanker transport of bitumen along B.C.’s coastline.

Albertans, hoping to get their petroleum to the West Coast, must be as distressed as British Columbians at the Aug. 4 breach of the Mount Polley tailings pond. Or they should be.

That is because this environmental catastrophe is bound to have a chilling effect on those in B.C. who otherwise might have been open to being convinced that — should Enbridge comply with the province’s five conditions and the 209 imposed by a federal review panel — well, maybe the job-generating Northern Gateway project would be worth the presumably diminished risk.

Not now. A slurry of metal-laden sand and waste water from that Imperial Metals tailings pond could well be mistaken for bitumen, with its greyish colour and ability to carry timber and other detritus along with it on its determined path.

This is what happens when goop mixes with water. A water ban, barring both drinking and bathing, was put in place in the vicinity of the breach and aboriginal fishers now fear for the season’s salmon run.

Company behind Mt. Polley disaster to open mine near Southeast Alaska Fishermen, Native groups concerned – by Anna Bisaro (The Juneau Empire – August 8, 2014)

August 8, 2014

http://juneauempire.com/

After the tailings pond dam breach at Mount Polley on Monday morning, Southeast Alaskans are worried about another Imperial Metals Corporation mine already being constructed at the headwaters of the Stikine watershed, one of the largest salmon producers in the Tongass National Forest.

The Red Chris Project, an open-pit copper and gold mine, is being constructed in northwest British Columbia near the Iskut River, a major tributary of the Stikine River. The Red Chris is predicted to process almost 30,000 tons of ore per day for 28 years, according to the Imperial Metals Corporation website.

“In Southeast Alaska, we will absorb nothing but risk,” Brian Lynch of the Petersburg Vessel Owner’s Association said. “We have everything to lose and nothing to gain.”

Lynch said that, after Monday’s incident, the fact that the Imperial Mines Corporation is also at the helm of the Red Chris Project increases concern for the Stikine watershed. The Stikine is an important salmon-producing river for the Tongass National Forest.

“A breach like this would be a disaster,” Lynch said of the Red Chris Project. “These systems produce a lot of salmon for our billion-dollar-a-year industry.”

Dam Burst Threatens Canada Projects Seeking Approval – by Christopher Donville and Liezel Hill (Bloomberg News – August 08, 2014)

August 8, 2014

http://www.businessweek.com/

A dam failure that sent billions of gallons of mine waste flowing down a British Columbia creek threatens to put a chill on new mining projects across Canada.

The Aug. 4 accident at Imperial Metals Corp. (III)’s Mount Polley copper-and-gold mine led the local district authority to declare a state of emergency amid concerns about drinking water and the fate of millions of migrating salmon. Provincial government officials are at the mine, about 400 kilometers (248 miles) northeast of Vancouver, and are testing local rivers and lakes for contamination.

The dam breach has been stabilized and the waste isn’t acidic, Vancouver-based Imperial said in a statement the day after the accident. The company is trying to investigate the spill and mitigate its effects, it said yesterday.
Whatever the cause or final outcome of the accident, it’s already bad news for the mining industry, which accounts for about a fifth of Canada’s exports. Mines trying to obtain permits in British Columbia will now be scrutinized much more closely, Adam Low, an analyst at Raymond James Financial Inc., said in an interview.

“This will, I think, cause everyone in government across the country to re-examine policies,” Bill Bennett, the province’s minister of energy and mining, told reporters Aug. 6.

B.C. orders cleanup after mine waste discharged into waterways – by Andrea Woo (Globe and Mail – August 7, 2014)

August 7, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

VANCOUVER — Three months ago, the Mount Polley mine experienced a small, but notable, breach that was quickly corrected when the gold and copper operation “got itself into compliance,” according to the province’s mines minister.

But environmental advocates say the incident should have served as a warning to avert the massive tailings-pond failure this week that has spewed millions of cubic metres of potentially contaminated waste into central British Columbia’s waterways, a disaster believed to be the largest of its kind in Canadian history.

The Mount Polley tailings pond damn burst early Monday morning, spewing enough mining waste water into the Cariboo district’s waterways to fill 2,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The Cariboo Regional District declared a local state of emergency; up to 300 residents in the rural community of Likely remain without clean water for drinking or bathing.

On Wednesday, the B.C. government ordered Imperial Metals Corporation, which owns the mine, to undertake an environmental impact assessment and submit cleanup plans to the Ministry of Environment.

The exact cause of Monday’s rupture is under investigation. There are three inspectors on site and two consulting companies are working with the Ministry of Energy and Mines, Minister Bill Bennett said.