[LookOutSugarLake] Canadian lakes turned into dumps

[handr at telus.net]

In case you missed cbc news last night I thought this would be of  
interest.

I think the only way to ensure these horrors don't happen is to have a  
strong united voice FOR clean water so we can all oppose such crimes  
against nature. Jobs come and go, this kind of pollution is forever.  
Who can live without water?

Huguette Allen.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/06/16/condemned-lakes.html

Lakes across Canada face being turned into mine dump sites
Lakes are in B.C., Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest  
Territories and Nunavut
Last Updated: Monday, June 16, 2008 | 9:42 PM ET Comments458Recommend817
By Terry Milewski, CBC News

Bush pilot Doug Beaumont and environmentalist Jim Bourquin fish on  
Kluela Lake, downstream from the planned dump site for the Red Chris  
gold and copper mining project in northwestern B.C.Bush pilot Doug  
Beaumont and environmentalist Jim Bourquin fish on Kluela Lake,  
downstream from the planned dump site for the Red Chris gold and  
copper mining project in northwestern B.C. (Terry Milewski/CBC)CBC  
News has learned that 16 Canadian lakes are slated to be officially  
but quietly "reclassified" as toxic dump sites for mines. The lakes  
include prime wilderness fishing lakes from B.C. to Newfoundland.

Environmentalists say the process amounts to a "hidden subsidy" to  
mining companies, allowing them to get around laws against the  
destruction of fish habitat.

Lakes proposed for use as mine tailings ponds:
Since the introduction of Schedule Two of mining effluent regulations  
under the Fisheries Act, in 2002, 16 lakes have been proposed for  
reclassification as tailings dumps.

Four of the 16 are already being used as dumps — all in Newfoundland.  
Two of those are at the Duck Pond Mine and the other two are older  
mines due to be brought under Schedule Two retroactively.

Only one of the 16 — Kemess North in B.C. — has been turned down.  
Eight are to be decided in the coming year.

B.C.:

     * Kemess North - Duncan Lake - REJECTED.
     * Kutcho Creek - Andrea Creek.
     * Ruby Creek - Ruby Creek watershed.
     * Prosperity - Fish Lake.
     * Red Chris.
     * Mount Milligan.

Manitoba:

     * Bucko Lake.

Newfoundland and Labrador:

     * Duck Pond Mine - Trout Pond and Gill's Brook.
     * Carol Mine - Wabush Lake.
     * Wabush Mine - Flora Lake.
     * Long Harbour - Sandy Pond.

Northwest Territories:

     * Winter Lake.

Nunavut:

     * Doris North Project - Tail Lake.
     * Meadowbank - Second Portage Lake.
     * High Lake.

Under the Fisheries Act, it's illegal to put harmful substances into  
fish-bearing waters. But, under a little-known subsection known as  
Schedule Two of the mining effluent regulations, federal bureaucrats  
can redefine lakes as "tailings impoundment areas."

That means mining companies don't need to build containment ponds for  
toxic mine tailings.

CBC News visited two examples of Schedule Two lakes. In Newfoundland  
and Labrador, the Vale Inco company wants to use a prime destination  
for fishermen known as Sandy Pond to hold tailings from a nickel  
processing plant.

In northern B.C., Imperial Metals plans to enclose a remote watershed  
valley to hold tailings from a gold and copper mine. The valley lies  
in what the native Tahltan people call the "Sacred Headwaters" of  
three major salmon rivers. It also serves as spawning grounds for the  
rainbow trout of Kluela Lake, which is downstream from the dump site.
Lakes 'safest option': mining association

Vale Inco's proposal was the subject of a public meeting on June 10 in  
Long Harbour, N.L. Billed as a "public consultation" on the proposal,  
the meeting was attended by government officials, mining executives,  
environmentalists and fishermen.

Lakes are often the best way for mine tailings to be contained, said  
Elizabeth Gardiner, vice-president for technical affairs for the  
Mining Association of Canada.

“In some cases, particularly in Canada, with this kind of topography  
and this number of natural lakes and depressions and ponds … in the  
end it's really the safest option for human health and for the  
environment," she said.

But Catherine Coumans, spokeswoman for the environmental group Mining  
Watch, said the federal government is making it too easy. She said  
federal officials are increasingly using the obscure Schedule Two  
regulations to quietly reclassify lakes and other waters as tailings  
dumps.
Jim Bourquin, centre, of the Cassiar Watch Society, says the decision  
by federal officials to turn a fish-bearing habitat into a waste  
management area is \Jim Bourquin, centre, of the Cassiar Watch  
Society, says the decision by federal officials to turn a fish-bearing  
habitat into a waste management area is "totally bizarre." (CBC)

“Something that used to be a lake — or a river, in fact, they can use  
rivers — by being put on this section two of this regulation is no  
longer a river or a lake," she said. "It's a tailings impoundment  
area. It's a waste disposal site. It's an industrial waste dump."

Coumans said the procedure amounts to a subsidy to the industry and  
enables mines to get around the Fisheries Act.

"What Canadians need to know is that this year, from March 2008 to  
March of 2009, eight lakes are going to be subject to being put on  
Schedule Two, which is just about every mine that is going ahead this  
year is looking around, looking for the nearest lake to dump its waste  
into.”

A local environmentalist who attended the Long Harbour meeting, Chad  
Griffiths, said of Sandy Pond: “It's easy enough to consider just one  
lake as just one lake, as a needed sacrifice, right? But it's not one  
lake … It's a trend. It's an open season on Canadian water.”
'Open season on Canadian water': environmentalist

A test case: the Red Chris Mine in northwestern B.C.

Steve Robertson, exploration manager for Imperial Metals, says any  
risk to the environment from the Red Chris mine will be carefully  
managed.Steve Robertson, exploration manager for Imperial Metals, says  
any risk to the environment from the Red Chris mine will be carefully  
managed. (CBC)Last fall, a Federal Court judge ruled that federal  
bureaucrats acted illegally in trying to fast-track the Red Chris  
copper and gold mine without a full and public environmental review.

The decision put the project on hold, but late last week, the Federal  
Appeals Court reversed the decision, paving the way for federal  
officials to declare lakes to be dumps without public consultation.

Imperial Metals said in a release Monday that federal authorities "are  
now authorized to issue regulatory approvals for the Red Chris project  
to proceed," although the matter could still be appealed to the  
Supreme Court of Canada.

In the earlier decision, Justice Luc Martineau overturned the decision  
by federal officials to skip a public review, saying it "has all the  
characteristics of a capricious and arbitrary decision which was taken  
for an improper purpose."

He also found those officials "committed a reviewable error by  
deciding to forgo the public consultation process which the project  
was statutorily mandated to undergo."

The dump site includes two small lakes in a Y-shaped valley. Imperial  
Metals plans to build three dams to contain mine tailings within the  
valley. But environmentalists say there is no way to stop effluent  
leaking downstream in groundwater.

James Dennis, an elder with the local Tahltan people, says he fears  
his grandchildren will be the ones who will have to live with polluted  
water.James Dennis, an elder with the local Tahltan people, says he  
fears his grandchildren will be the ones who will have to live with  
polluted water. (CBC)Jim Bourquin of the Cassiar Watch Society, a  
conservation group, said Kluela Lake, immediately downstream from the  
site, is “one of the best trout fishing lakes in northern B.C.”

“This is a precedent-setting decision by the federal government to  
start using fish-bearing habitat as a waste management area," Bourquin  
said. "It's totally bizarre for the federal government to come here  
and say that this Y-shaped valley up here is no longer a fish habitat,  
it's no longer sacred headwaters, it's just a waste dump site.”

But Steve Robertson, exploration manager for Imperial Metals, told CBC  
News the dump site will be sealed and that the economic benefits of  
the planned Red Chris mine will be enormous.

“This is a project that can bring a lot of good jobs, long-term jobs,  
well-paying jobs to a community that desperately needs it,” Robertson  
said.

He added that the total investment over the 25-year life of the mine  
would be about half a billion dollars and that the risk to the  
environment will be carefully managed.

“Tailings are part of the mining process,” Robertson said, “and, if  
treated properly, if they're built into a proper structure and kept  
submerged, they should be able to withstand the test of time and  
actually not pose a detriment to the environment.”

But James Dennis, a 76-year-old elder of the local Tahltan people,  
told CBC News he doesn’t buy that.

“We want it stopped,” said Dennis, who lives in the native village of  
Iskut, 18 kilometres northwest of the mine site. “We want to stop the  
mine … The animals will be drinking that water and they'll all be  
polluted too.

"Once they do the mine, they’re going to leave, and we're the people  
who are going to live with that. Not me, but my grandchildren, the  
small little kids like this. That's who's going to live with the  
pollution.”

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