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Published on Monday, 16 March 2015 06:34
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Written by editor
PRESS RELEASE
MARCH 16, 2015
EAO EVALUATION OF RAVEN COAL MINE APPLICATION REVEALS MISSING INFORMATION
On March 11, 2015 the BC Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) released to the public, the draft Application Evaluation Comments tracking table for Compliance Coal Corporation’s (Compliance) Environmental Assessment Certificate Application (Application) for the proposed Raven Coal Mine Project submitted on January 30, 2015.
A review of the 62-page EAO Application Evaluation Comment tracking table by the CoalWatch Comox Valley Society (CoalWatch) indicates that required information on significant issues was still missing in the latest Compliance Application.
The Application was being evaluated for completeness by the EAO during a 30-day evaluation period when on March 2, 2015, Compliance withdrew the Application from the evaluation process.
The EAO evaluation of Compliance’s Application was to determine if the required information that was missing and identified in the EAO’s rejection of the initial Application on May 16, 2013 was included in this... second Application submitted to the EAO on January 30, 2015.
The missing information included items such as: hydrogeology/groundwater, socio-economics, public health, public consultation,marine environment baseline studies, Aboriginal interests/rights/consultation, and potential effects of the proposed Project and proposed mitigation.
“ In a nutshell, this latest Compliance Application failed to include the required information on many facets of the Raven Coal Mine Project from Fanny Bay to Port Alberni,” said CoalWatch President John Snyder. “ A lot of the missing information included key issues of concern raised by the public for the past 5 years, and for whatever reason Compliance has once again failed to adequately address these key concerns in their Application.”
Statements from Compliance have indicated they withdrew their Application due to some “misinformation” circulating in some communities regarding the Raven Coal Mine Project. However, CoalWatch believes this EAO Application Evaluation Comment tracking table gives a greater insight into the “missing information” identified by the EAO through it’s evaluation of the Compliance Application.
“ CoalWatch believes the public is well served by having access to the Application evaluation comments, and we applaud the EAO for making this information available to the public,” added Snyder.
“At the end of the day, I think this latest Compliance Application withdrawal in some way calls into question Compliance’s credibility and competency and adds to the reason for the lack of social license for the Raven Coal Mine Project.”
For more information on the Raven Coal Mine Project and links to the EAO draft Application Evaluation Comments visit: www.coalwatch.ca
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CONTACT INFORMATION: John Snyder @ 250-335-2246
