10 years after B.C.’s worst mining waste disaster, company faces charges

Imperial Metals, the company that owns the Mount Polley mine in B.C.’s Interior, has been charged on 15 counts under the federal Fisheries Act.

The charges come more than 10 years after a Mount Polley tailings pond dam failed, sending 25 billion litres of toxic sludge into Polley Lake, Hazeltine Creek and Quesnel Lake in what became one of the worst mining waste disasters in Canadian history.

The company will appear in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver on Dec. 18, according to a media release the B.C. Conservation Officer Service posted on Facebook.

The release said possible contraventions of the federal Fisheries Act were jointly investigated by the B.C. Conservation Officer Service, Environment and Climate Change Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada, which worked together as the Mount Polley Integrated Investigation Task Force.

According to the release, no statements will be issued by the investigating agencies, as the matter is before the courts.

Fines for violating the Fisheries Act are increasingly hefty. In 2021, Teck Resources was ordered to pay $60 million — the biggest fine ever issued for Fisheries Act violations — after pleading guilty to polluting fish-bearing waterways in the Elk Valley, where the company operated metallurgical coal mines. 

Mount Polley disaster spilled lead, cadmium and arsenic

The waste surge from the Mount Polley tailings storage facility failure — with a total volume that would fill about 10,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools — turned Hazeltine Creek into a broad channel lined with stumps and debris. About 19 billion litres of tailing slurry entered into the water where the creek flowed into Quesnel Lake, home to fish such as lake trout and sockeye salmon.

All told, the tailings pond breach dumped tonnes of debris and heavy metal into the local watershed, including 134.1 tonnes of lead, 2.8 tonnes of cadmium and 2.1 tonnes of arsenic, according to a national inventory of harmful substances released into the environment. The spill contained 92 per cent of the lead dumped into Canada’s environment in 2014, Environment Canada estimated. 

In July, Imperial Metals applied to expand the tailings storage facility and raise the height of the repaired dam by four metres. The company also applied for a permit to continue discharging wastewater into Quesnel Lake. The applications are currently under review and no decisions have been made, the B.C. Environment Ministry confirmed in an email. 

B.C. taxpayers covered $40 million in cleanup costs for Mount Polley mine disaster

Until now, Imperial Metals has never been fined or faced legal repercussions for the tailings dam failure. B.C. taxpayers covered $40 million in cleanup costs. And the company, with provincial Environment Ministry permits in hand, is still pumping wastewater from Mount Polley into Quesnel Lake.

Jamie Kneen, Canada program co-lead for Mining Watch Canada, said it’s not yet clear if the charges are “meaningfully different” than charges filed in 2016. “What I can say is that it is good news to see any kind of enforcement action, even after 10 years,” Kneen told The Narwhal. 

“However, we’re still deeply troubled that the company is allowed to dump essentially untreated effluent into Quesnel Lake.” 

In October 2016, MiningWatch Canada filed a private prosecution against the B.C. government and the Mount Polley Mining Corporation for violations of the federal Fisheries Act in connection with the tailings pond disaster. “MiningWatch is taking action now because it is concerned that, almost two-and-a-half years after the disaster, and despite clear evidence of impacts on waters, fish and fish habitat, the Crown has failed to lay charges and enforce the Fisheries Act,” the group said at the time. 

Kneen said the Crown took over the charges and asked the court to stay them. “I don’t know if this is a reactivation of any of those charges, or a different set of charges,” he said. 

In an emailed statement in response to questions, B.C.’s Ministry of Environment said it will not be commenting as the matter is before the courts. The ministry was not immediately able to say if the charges are the same ones the Crown took over, or a different set of charges.

‘So important to see charges finally being laid’ in Mount Polley disaster: advocate

Andrew Gage, a staff lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law, said in a statement he is happy charges have been laid. “But this is long overdue,” Gage said. “Environmental offenders, and their investors, need to know that there will be consequences that flow quickly and inevitably from their unlawful actions. Communities need to know that their water will be protected from those who harm it.”

Gage also said a 10-year delay in laying charges “undermines the deterrence message that needs to be sent to other irresponsible mining companies and other polluters, particularly given how few environmental offences actually result in charges.”

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Nikki Skuce, director of Northern Confluence, a group aiming to improve land-use decisions in B.C.’s salmon watersheds, said the Mount Polley mine “seemed to only get more permits to continue polluting and operating” following the tailings storage facility breach.

“It’s so important to see charges finally being laid against Imperial Metals over a decade later,” she said in an emailed statement. “Although we don’t know all the details at this time, there really needs to be some kind of justice and accountability for the largest environmental disaster in B.C.” 

Skuce, who is also the co-chair of the B.C. Mining Law Reform Network, said she hopes the recent charges bring attention back to some of the changes recommended after the Mount Polley mine disaster to reduce risks of tailings failures to communities and watersheds. 

In a news release, Imperial Metals said the charges were outlined in an indictment filed with the Supreme Court of British Columbia on Dec. 6, which the company received on Dec. 9. 

The company said it will not make further statements while the matter is before the courts. 

— With files from Shannon Waters

Updated Dec. 11, 2024, at 11:14 a.m. PT: This story was updated to add information from the B.C. Environment Ministry, received after publication, about Imperial Metals’ permit application amendments for the Mount Polley mine.