Take Action to Prevent Another Mount Polley Disaster!
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- Published on Thursday, 14 August 2014 17:20
- Written by editor
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Write a letter to help prevent another Mount Polley!
Hi PAOV,
Last Monday August 4th the unthinkable happened.
A massive tailings pond breach at Mount Polley Mine in the Caribou region of BC sent ten million cubic meters of waste water and almost five million cubic meters of mud and contaminated slurry rushing out into the natural environment. Tonnes of arsenic, mercury, lead, selenium, phosphorus and other heavy metals gushed into a local fish-bearing creek and two lakes.
The breach is one of the world’s largest tailings pond accidents! The clean-up cost is conservatively estimated at $200 million, not to mention the cost of compensating local businesses, residents and First Nations in the area. Of great concern is the fact that Imperial Metals, the company that owns and operates the mine, has just $15 million in “interruption of business” insurance—an amount far too low to address the serious environmental impacts of this incident.
The magnitude of this catastrophic collapse has raised many serious questions:
Why did the tailings pond, over 4 km in diameter, contain up to five times the amount of effluent it was originally intended to store?
How much did the BC government know about the structural integrity of the tailings pond and when? Preliminary reports show that former employees and contractors raised serious concerns about the dam to both Imperial Metals and the BC government years earlier.
What role did government cutbacks play in this incident? Environmental laws, both federally and provincially have been severely weakened over the past decade, and government oversight of industry has declined dramatically in a move towards “results-based” oversight which places heavy emphasis on the ability of industry to “self-regulate.”
BC has nineteen operating mines and numerous closed mines—many with similar tailings ponds. How safe are these “ponds” and do other mining companies have enough insurance to cover the cost of a catastrophic breach should it occur?
Imperial Mines has pursued plans for two mines in the pristine wilderness of Clayoquot Sound, BC—one of Canada's most iconic wilderness areas. This west coast region is of global ecological significance, with First Nations and other communities that rely on a clean, healthy environment. A disaster like Mount Polley would have absolutely devastating impacts—yet another reason for a mining moratorium in the Sound.
Join me in demanding that the BC government commission an independent investigation of the Mount Polley breach, an immediate province-wide inspection of large tailings ponds and an increase in government resources for oversight of all mining activities.
r0
