This week marks the one-year anniversary of the Mount Polley mine spill, the largest mining disaster in Canadian history. On August 4, 2014 an estimated 24 million cubic metres of mining waste spilled from a failed tailings impoundment, flowing down the Hazeltine Creek into Quesnel Lake, a local source of drinking water and home to an estimated quarter of the province’s sockeye salmon.

DeSmog Canada spoke with local resident and fisheries biologist Richard Holmes to discuss the anniversary of the accident. Holmes said some members of his community are disappointed the mine hasn’t done more to repair the social and economic damage done to residents in the wake of the spill.

Although the Mount Polley mine, owned by Imperial Metals, has put an estimated $67 million into stabilizing the Hazeltine Creek, Holmes said the area resembles a “pretty ditch” that won’t be suitable fish habitat for at least two more years.

“It’s disappointing,” Holmes said.

“The last public meeting was about a month ago and I was really disappointed to watch the mine and their consultants and the government people act like they’d just won the lottery. There were as happy as pigs in shit.”

Holmes said the company was eager to have the mine up and running again — something the province gave them approval to do last month. The mine partially reopened in July to the frustration of locals who feel not enough has been done to make reparations for the spill.

“I felt somewhat insulted actually,” Holmes said. “Here our community had just gone through this year of frustration with both parties and their main focus was the environment, which is good, there’s no doubt about that, but their second focus, an equally important focus was on the economics of it.”

“But they've forgotten completely about the social impacts and the cultural and economic impacts on the people in the community.”

Image Credit: Water destined for Quesnel Lake gathers in a sediment pond, March 2015. Photo: Farhan Umedaly 

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Gary and Peggy Zorn lost their livelihood in the wake of the Mount Polley mining disaster one year ago today, the couple explained, after foreign tourists lost the desire to experience the region as a travel destination renowned for its wildlife.

Gary Zorn, adorned with the impressive title of “bear whisperer,” said their eco-tour grizzly-watching outfit lost hundreds of thousands of dollars the day the mine’s tailings pond breached sending as estimated 24 million cubic metres of contaminated mining waste down the Hazeltine Creek and into Quesnel Lake, a local source of drinking water.

The Zorns said in the year that has passed since the spill, the mine, owned by Imperial Metals, has only completed a superficial cleanup in the area, leaving a lingering stain on both the environment and the region’s reputation.

“It’s pretty quiet here,” Gary Zorn said. “The businesses are suffering quite a bit here in Likely because of the damage the breach has done.”

“It’s not just what the breach did environmentally to us; it’s what has happened with the bad publicity we got when this went around the world. That also hurt everybody here.”

He added Mount Polley has yet to deal with the social aspect of the accident.

“They did a lot of damage to a lot of people and are they going to address that? That’s what a lot of people here are wondering about.”

He said he questions the province’s decision to even consider giving the mine a partial start up license “when they’ve totally avoided dealing with what they’ve created.”

Gary said their guide business has been hit hard so he can empathize with the community’s need for economic stimulus — the kind a reopened mine might provide.

“I do know there are people who need jobs. There’s no two ways about it,” he said. “We’re not against mining or logging at all. I worked in mine and in the forestry industry and we worked together with these people.”

“It’s just that when I go ahead in our business and I make a mistake in the bush that affects someone else I’m expected to make that right.”

“That’s all that people here are expecting of Mount Polley. We’re called ‘Canada’s largest mining disaster’ now,” he added. “You guys screwed up. At least make it right.”

B.C. Claims "Significant Progress" Made in Mount Polley Cleanup

Last week the B.C. Ministry of Environment announced “significant progress” had been made in the first phase of the Mount Polley mine mitigation and remediation plan. According to the province the plan focused on stabilizing Hazeltine Creek and improving the quality of water entering Quesnel Lake.

The Ministry of Environment said it considered the containment of tailings, water treatment and the protection of fish “complete or suitably initiated.” Ongoing work will include an ecological and human health risk assessment, the province said.

Environment Minister Mary Polak said she acknowledges “full environmental remediation will take years,” but said the work done over the past year “is truly impressive.”

Peggy Zorn said the mine and the province are over-emphasizing clean up efforts without acknowledging the vast majority of the spill remains lingering at the bottom of Quesnel Lake.

“They’ve taken care of the aesthetics,” she said. “Things look okay but they haven’t dealt with the environmental mess.”

“They talk about the clean up that has been done. They’ve cleaned up the surface but there’s a lot of other stuff that hasn’t been done. They’ll never get [the mine waste] out of the lake so you can hardly call that a cleanup.”

Gary added, “all we’re saying is, hey, you guys created the mess. At least make an effort to straighten it out and not just what looks nice along the road.“

"Year of Frustration"

Richard Holmes, Likely resident and fisheries biologist, said he wishes there was more progress when it comes to environmental cleanup and recovery for the community on the one-year anniversary of the spill.

“We’ve managed to carry on in spite of it all, but we wish there was better news. It’s unfortunate this turned out the way it has,” he said, adding the community is divided over the outcome of the spill and the recent approval from the province to partially restart the mine.

“There are people going back to work at the mine that live here and there are at the other end of the spectrum people that were impacted or had their businesses impacted that haven’t had their needs addressed whatsoever by the company or the government.”

“We find that to be really lacking.”

Holmes also criticized the mine and the B.C. government for their self-congratulatory attitude concerning remediation and the reopening of the mine.

“The last public meeting was about a month ago and I was really disappointed to watch the mine and their consultants and the government people act like they’d just won the lottery. There were as happy as pigs in shit,” Holmes said.

“I felt somewhat insulted, actually.”

Holmes said his community was at the tail end of a “year of frustration” and to hear Mount Polley and the government so focused on making the mine profitable again seemed insensitive. “They’ve forgotten completely about the social impacts and the cultural and economic impacts on the people in the community. It’s disappointing.”

Holmes acknowledged that important environmental remediation work has been done but that both parties are likely too happy with what they’ve accomplished.

“They’ve certainly accomplished some things. Hazeltine Creek has been somewhat cleaned up," he said, adding flatly: "it looks like a pretty ditch now."

"But unfortunately it’s going to be used as a pretty ditch for a couple of years to transport waste water and it’s not going to be used for fish habitat for at least two years.”  

“They may be happy but for people who live here it’s not what we envisioned at all,” he said.

“We expect better. They’re going to be here another 12 years. We expect them to get along with all the community and not just cherry pick who they hang out with here. They seem to be really focused on looking after their employees, the rest of us be damned.”

Image Credit: Tailings waste in the Hazeltine Creek, August 11, 2014. Photo: Carol Linnitt

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Nearly one year after the catastrophic collapse of the Mount Polley mine tailings pond, which sent an estimated 25 million cubic metres of contaminated mining waste and water into Quesnel Lake, the project is permitted to partially reopen.

The B.C. government approved a permit to temporarily restart the gold and copper mine at half capacity even though the company has no long-term plan to deal with an abundance of water on site. A backlog of water, which overburdened the tailings storage pit, contributed to the accident last August according to an engineering panel that investigated the incident.

Mines Minister Bill Bennett said the province will approve the short-term permit while the mine figures out how to deal with the excess water.

“Our choice was: Do we wait for them for a year to do absolutely everything that shows they have a long-term plan, or let them operate for a few months and get people working again and allow the company to earn some revenue, given there’s no negative impact to the environment?” Bennett said.

Image Credits: Carol Linnitt

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“I planned on dying here,” Skeed Borkowski, owner of the Northern Lights Lodge, told me. “But not from drinking the water.”

The lodge, located on Quesnel Lake, is one of many local homes and businesses left to hang precariously in the aftermath of the Mount Polley mine spill that released billions of litres of mining waste into the local environment, including Quesnel Lake.

On August 4^th a massive tailings pond holding waste water and sediment from the Imperial Metals gold and copper mine breached, sending a mixture of contaminants including arsenic, mercury, selenium, zinc and lead into Polley Lake and Hazeltine Creek, which flows into Quesnel Lake.

“I’m 66,” Skeed said. “My wife is 64. This was the time that we were going to…take it a little easier.

“I don’t see that in the cards right now.”

The dream

The day I went to visit Skeed at the Northern Lights Lodge, eight days had passed since the spill.

“I think it hit me more yesterday for some reason,” he said. “I made my first disconnection from the lake.”

When I drove up Skeed was working next to a water pump, one of four that feeds the lodge with water pulled directly from Quesnel Lake. Seeing the water pump slumped on the lawn bothered Skeed like an exposed nerve. Surfacing those pumps was all too much like pulling up roots.

“And I’m not an emotional guy. I wrestle grizz,” he laughed. “I mean, look at this,” he said, surveying his property. “The work that we have done here, all these docks, everything you see, all these cabins…”

Skeed and his wife Sharon bought the 1942 lodge 18 years ago and spent their life savings rebuilding it into one of Canada’s premier fly-fishing destinations.

A sign welcomes visitors to the Northern Lights Lodge on the shore of Quesnel Lake. Photo: Farhan Umedaly

He walked me up to the main lodge. The exposed wooden beams were decorated with colourful flies in the kitchen. The main room had all the rustic allure of a classic fishing lodge: dark wood, stone arched fireplace, mounted moose heads, board games.

Fishing flies on the kitchen walls of the Northern Lights Lodge. Photo: Carol Linnitt

For 16 years they have been running fishing tours, Skeed said as he flipped through a photo album of past guests. “Look at them,” he said of a couple laughing, holding up a rainbow trout. “This is what we give to people.”

The fireplace mantel at the Northern Lights Lodge. Photo: Carol Linnitt

The common area at the Northern Lights Lodge. Photo: Carol Linnitt

The last cast

At the beginning of the summer Skeed and Sharon made a big decision. They were going to switch over to long-term renters and host their final full-scale fly-fishing tour.

When the couple sent out email invitations to former guests, the response was overwhelming. “In nine days we sold 42 trips,” he said, setting them up for a busy final season.

To commemorate the event, Skeed even had hats made. They read: “The Last Cast.”

“This was going to be our year,” Skeed said. “I tell people that we’re going to slow down a bit, because we’re cramming for finals. This is the time and it’s ironic that this hat says the last cast,” Skeed said, holding onto the memento.

All but one of the groups cancelled their trip. Although, Skeed said, only two individuals wanted refunds. “Everybody has become such good friends, saying ‘let’s just hold off until next year – don’t worry about it right now, you’ve got a lot on your plate,’” he said.

But for Skeed, the promise of a return to normalcy isn’t anywhere on the horizon.

The spill

Skeed said he and his wife Sharon received a phone call at five in the morning from Sharon’s brother who worked at the mine. The mine’s tailings pond breached, he told them.

“We went out on our deck and it was like standing next to Niagara Falls. I’ve done it – and it was that loud here,” Skeed said. “One of the guys in town described it like a jet and that’s what it was like. That went on…probably 12 hours.”

Skeed and his wife put their boat in the water and travelled up the lake to warn other residents and campers. When they approached Hazeltine Creek, where tailings waste was flooding into Quesnel Lake, they were stopped by rough waters and debris.

“We could view the Hazeltine from probably half a mile away and you could see the slurry and the waves boiling out over the logs at that point,” he said.

The couple settled on using a blow horn to warn others on the lake. Skeed said they didn’t know what they were facing at that point.

“We didn’t know what to expect.”

Skeed returned to the mouth of the Hazeltine a day later to survey the wreckage.

“Some of those logs, I mean, they were three feet in diameter, and they were just broken like toothpicks,” he said.

A partial view of the debris field at the mouth of Hazeltine Creek in Quesnel Lake. Photo: Farhan Umedaly

“I’ve been a logger. I’ve done a lot of things out here, being here this long. I don’t think there’s a piece of equipment out there that could break logs like that. The force was so tremendous.”

“It’s gone”

Skeed said he never received a phone call from any officials or emergency responders about the accident at the Mount Polley mine. But when Premier Christy Clark arrived in town amidst a flurry of cameras, Skeed said locals were assured things would be okay.

“The cheerleaders came to town and told us it was all going to be alright, and we’re going to make sure the tourism industry was going to be saved and they were really going to promote the area,” Skeed said.

But for a business owner like Skeed, the damage to Quesnel Lake has already been done.

“I don’t care what they do up there. Number one, they can’t fix it,” he said.

Quesnel Lake is one of the deepest fjord lakes in the world. The debris field from the Mount Polley mine spill can be seen in the distance. Photo: Carol Linnitt

The blight of an industrial accident of this scope will remain on the area indefinitely, Skeed said. He said even a basic online search of Quesnel Lake will live with a post-spill “red flag…forever.”

But of even more concern for Skeed is the amount of toxic waste that made its way into the lake, the effects of which won’t be known for some time.

“They can’t take those toxins out,” he said. “They’ll dissipate. They’ll disappear. But I will never, ever, ever drink out of this lake again. You couldn’t convince me.”

“But the reality of it is, we don’t even know what’s going to happen to this. And the unknown is what’ll keep people from coming here. If you had the choice would you want to take your kids swimming here?”

“I would never bring my family here,” he said.

Skeed’s prized fishing spot in September is Mitchell River, up the lake past Hazeltine Creek. He said he would set off with guests early in the morning before dawn, traveling up the lake in the silence to watch daybreak on the water.

“There’s times where I’ll go up there and you don’t pass a boat, it’s so pristine. And you just put a cup over the side of your boat and drink the water. It‘s astounding,” Skeed said.

The lodge provides bottled drinking water to guests on day trips, but Skeed prefers to carry along nothing more than a simple cup. He said he encouraged guests to drink the water, straight from the lake.

“I would say 30 per cent of the people after watching me do that – and it’s hard for them, they’re just not used to it — they’ll actually take a drink and they’ll go ‘that was just so cool.’ ”

“There aren’t many places like that,” Skeed said. “Especially this one. It’s gone.”

Accountability

“Everyone comes around to the, ‘well they’ve got to make this right with you.’ You know, that’s – they do have to make it right with us – but the most important thing here is our water,” Skeed said.

“I don’t know what they can do about it.”

Skeed holds up a photo of gold he and his wife, Sharon, panned at a local placer mine. Photo: Carol Linnitt

Already Skeed feels resident’s concerns are being overshadowed by officials, eager to reboot the local economy.

“You can’t suddenly bombard [people with] advertising and tourism and deny that this happened. How many people are going to be convinced [by] the government… putting on this big ad campaign?” he said, adding sarcastically, “everybody trusts the government.”

It will take a lot more than a government advertising campaign to win back Skeed’s trust.

“I misunderstood them,” Skeed said. “I possibly misunderstood them, because they mentioned about really addressing damage control and I didn’t realize it was for the mine and for themselves.”

“I thought we’d be thrown in as people that have received damage.”

He gestured to his property, “how many people do you see walking around my lawns?”

Beyond having the concerns of local businesses addressed, Skeed wants to see the provincial government and Imperial Metals, owner of the Mount Polley mine, take ownership of the accident.

“If they would only tell the truth rather than covering their own butts,” he said.

“Man up. Man up and say we made a mistake, we’re at fault. And the word is fault. It’s not ‘we’re taking responsibility for this.’ It’s not responsibility — it’s a fault issue,” he said.

“It’s their damn fault, not the dam’s fault. It’s their damn fault.”

This article is published as part of a joint-venture between the Vancovuer Observer and DeSmog Canada.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

“It’s hard to deal [with] and treat something if you don’t know what it is,” Richard Holmes, fisheries biologist with Cariboo Envirotech, said in an interview at Mount Polley Mine, home to the tailings pond that breached August 4^th, sending an estimated 14.5 billion litres of mining waste into the local environment, including Quesnel Lake, a major source of drinking water in the Cariboo region of B.C.

“At this stage the impacts on Quesnel Lake are virtually unknown,” Holmes said.

Very little is known about the significance of the accident, although it has been nearly three weeks since the spill, one of the worst environmental disasters in B.C.’s history, that sent the Cariboo region into a state of local emergency.

Last week authorities rescinded a broad drinking water ban that prevented residents from bathing in or drinking the water, or eating locally caught fish. A partial drinking ban remains in place for the immediate region of the spill, including Polley Lake, Hazeltine Creek and a one hundred metre zone surrounding the spot where the billions of litres of tailings waste poured into Quesnel Lake.

It is this particular area, where sludge from the spill sits slumped into Quesnel Lake, that is of concern to Holmes.

“One of my concerns as a fisheries biologist is the sediment that’s currently located at the mouth of Hazeltine Creek and in the bottom of Quesnel Lake,” he said.

“What efforts have been made to characterize that, as far as size is concerned?” Holmes asked.

He said the company that operates the mine, Imperial Metals, is still draining water from Polley Lake into what remains of Hazeltine Creek. “There’s still some polluted water that is going to be drained into Quesnel Lake,” he said.

Currently Holmes is involved in talks with Imperial Metals and the Soda Creek First Nation, a local band that wants to play a role in clean up and remediation.

Imperial Metals should at least send down some underwater cameras to get a sense of the size of the spill underwater, Holmes said.

That could help establish “what impact the spill has had on the bottom of Quesnel Lake,” he said.

“There’s certainly the global technology available to do that.”

As of Thursday last week the B.C. Ministry of Environment did not have a plan in place to begin clean up of the spill site.

“I think they should put every effort they possibly can into fixing this situation up,” Holmes said.

Bev Sellars, chief of the Soda Creek First Nation, said her community isn’t expecting to feel the full effects of the spill until years down the road.

“This is the biggest salmon run in years,” she said. “And [the salmon] are going to have to swim through that sludge or around that sludge to get to the spawning grounds.”

“Four years down the road we’re going to see the effect that has,” she said.

“This is huge and going to affect us for years to come.”

Although Ministry of Environment testing showed contaminants in the water were no higher than historical levels, some local residents said they will not return to drinking the water yet.

Coralee Oaks, MLA from the Cariboo region and minister of community, sport and cultural development, said she understands lingering concerns.

Cariboo MLA and Minister of Sport, Culture and Community Development, Coralee Oakes addresses lingering concerns over drinking water and cleanup at the spill site.

“First of all I absolutely understand the concerns and that’s why the province and the company are going to continue doing the testing. First Nations are also doing their own independent water testing,” she said.

Sellars said the Soda Creek First Nation is pulling together resources to perform independent water testing because her community does not trust the B.C. government or Imperial Metals.

“We’re not accepting [Imperial Metal’s] or the government’s tests right now,” she said, adding there is “definitely a lack of trust” surrounding water safety.

Oakes said she can understand the lack of confidence.

“I understand what the people are feeling,” she said. “It’s going to take a long time to regain trust and confidence. That’s why we have to work very closely with the community, making sure that we’re here regularly, talking with the community to ensure that slowly we rebuild that trust.”

Oakes also said the company is responsible for funding cleanup efforts, something local residents have been concerned about.

“It is the company’s responsibility,” Oakes said. “It is their responsibility to ensure that cleanup happens in the community and they’ve assured us that their insurance and the size of the corporation that it is, they will be able to financially cover those costs.”

Environment Minister Mary Polak also stated B.C. has a “polluter-pay model” in place and that British Columbians “can expect the company will be the one paying for the cleanup and recovery.”

Although critics are expressing concern that a combination of high cleanup costs, an Imperial Metals shareholder lawsuit and potential personal suits could leave the company unable to pay.

Imperial Metals president Brian Kynoch indicated the company is relying on profits from other mining projects to fund cleanup efforts. “If it’s $400 million, then we are going to have to get mines generating to make that money to do the cleanup,” he said.

For Richard Holmes, however, it’s too late to shirk responsibility.

“If cost is an issue than perhaps they should never have had this mine open here,” he said.

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It has been 10 days since the tailings pond holding billions of litres of mining waste breached at the Mount Polley mine near Likely, B.C. sending arsenic and mercury-laced water and slurry into the Hazeltine Creek which feeds Quesnel Lake, a major source of drinking water and home to one quarter of the province’s sockeye salmon.

Yet local residents still have no idea when clean up of the spill site might begin.

On a recent trip to the spill site, DeSmog Canada learned no cleanup crews are currently working on removing the tremendous amount of mining waste clogging up what used to be the Hazeltine Creek and spreading out into Quesnel Lake.

David Karn, media relations with the ministry of environment, was unable to provide information or comment on an expected cleanup date or who would be performing the cleanup, industry or government.

Imperial Metals, also reached out to for comment, was unable to respond by the time of publication.

On Tuesday, August 12, representatives from the Cariboo Regional District (CRD) announced a local drinking water ban placed on Quesnel Lake and the Quesnel River would be lifted after sampling showed the water was safe for consumption.

A water use ban remains in effect for 100 metres surrounding the debris field at the convergence of the Hazeltine Creek and Quesnel Lake.

Coralee Oakes, local MLA and minister of community, sport and development told DeSmog Canada that regular water testing will continue and that sample results will be made available online. The CRD will continue to supply residents and tourists with free drinking water and temporary showers at a forestry camp.

But community members have expressed concern over the remnants of the spill, which sit leaching into the lake, and a large cloudy plume of suspended solids in the water, visible from the air.

Richard Holmes, fisheries biologist with Cariboo Envirotech and local resident for 38 years, said sophisticated equipment is needed to survey the extent of the spill underwater.

“We’re talking with industry about getting some underwater cameras in there,” he said.

Holmes is working with the Soda Creek First Nation to ensure First Nations are involved in cleanup efforts, once they begin.

In the meantime, locals are left to speculate about lingering contaminants in their water.

Despite the recently-lifted drinking water ban, many residents admitted they will not drink the water.

Freshwater expert and biogeochemist Dr. David Schindler said random, localized sampling of contaminated water “may not detect the damage done.”

“I understand that considerable arsenic, mercury, cadmium, lead and copper were among the elements released,” he said. “All are extremely toxic.”

Schindler said he suspects the biggest long-term threat lies in areas where sediment from the spill overlaps with spawning and rearing habitat for fish.

“In the St. Lawrence River, most of the contamination of fish with mercury occurs at a few sites where contaminated sediment is deposited and [which] fish also use for feeding or nursery habitat,” he said.

But detailed knowledge of spill sites is usually scant, he said. “Unfortunately, there is not this basic sort of information available for most sites and the sampling done after an accident is more or less random.”

“Our monitoring of habitats around all industrial sites in important aquatic systems in this country is in serious need of upgrading,” he said. “Without background information on fish populations, habitats and toxic concentrations, it is almost impossible to determine how much damage is done.”

“Sometimes it is hard to believe that the lack of pre-accident information is not deliberate,” he said.

This article is part of a joint-venture between the Vancouver Observer and DeSmog Canada.

Image Credit: Carol Linnitt

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There were audible scoffs from the crowd Tuesday as Cariboo MLAs told residents in Likely, B.C. that the drinking water ban has been lifted for areas near the Mount Polley mine where a tailings pond breached Monday, August 4^th sending billions of litres of mining wastewater and solid materials into Hazeltine Creek and Quesnel Lake.

The drinking ban remains in effect for Mount Polley, Hazeltine Creek and an area 100 metres immediately surrounding the visible sediment plume at the mouth of the Hazeltine Creek where debris and sludge from the spill poured into Quesnel Lake, the primary source of drinking water for local residents.

At a small community press conference on the edge of the Quesnel River in Likely, B.C. Donna Barnett, MLA for the Cariboo-Chilcotin and parliamentary secretary for forests, lands and natural resource operations for rural developments, said, “this is a good news story.”

Residents have been dealing with uncertainty since last week, she said. “Well, finally we can give you some certainty.”

The announcement follows the release of a Ministry of Environment water test that found water from Polley Lake to be near “historical levels” taken prior to the tailings breach.

A press release on the Interior Health website states “Interior Health has no reason to believe that this water was ever exposed to unsafe levels of contaminants from the mine breach.”

Coralee Oakes, minister of community, sport and cultural development for the Cariboo region, told a small crowd that had gathered, “The results have come back from…our chief medical office for this region who is independent of government [and] has come forward…to announce that we will be removing the drinking water, recreation and fishing ban.”

A small crowd gathered on the banks of the Quesnel River in Likely, B.C. August 12 to hear the water ban for the area was mostly rescinded. Photo by Carol Linnitt.

Yet locals have expressed significant concern over water quality issues, even after the drinking water ban was partially lifted Sunday.

A journalist in the crowd, Christopher Donville from Bloomberg, remarked that it is generally accepted that tailings are better off in a tailings pond, and yet billions of gallons of tailings have spilled into the local environment seemingly without any negative effects. He looked to Minister Oakes for comment, but his remark was met with a chorus of other voices.

“Isn’t that wonderful?” Skeed Borkowski, the owner of a local fly fishing lodge, sarcastically remarked.

“What about testing the water column?” another woman chimed in.

Local resident and former Mount Polley mine employee Doug Watt asked for more information on the suspended solids causing a murky cloud in Quesnel Lake near his home.

Minister Oakes defended the water study results to the crowd, saying the experts who provided the information are “independent” and “reviewed all the data at a professional standard.”

Oakes said the Cariboo Regional District will continue to provide drinking water to residents and will keep the temporary shower facilities in operation.

When asked if the test results will change their interaction with the water, couple Doug and Marlene Watt, were split.

Doug, a former metallurgist and shift supervisor at Mount Polley mine, said he will drink the water after it’s been filtered. His wife said she “isn’t ready yet” to drink the water.

“Again we apologize to folks who were looking for information and couldn’t find it,” Oakes said.

In the early evening representatives from the Ministry of Environment came by to drop off information packets to locals at their homes and businesses. Avtar Sundher, head of government and compliance with the environmental management section of the Ministry of Environment pointed out the regions still under a drinking water ban on a map.

“All these hash areas are still affected,” he said, pointing to Polley Lake and Hazeltine Creek.

A map provided by the Ministry of Environment shows the areas still under a water use ban, including the 100-metre area in yellow and red surrounding the debris field at the mouth of Hazeltine Creek.

The information package states “the tailings liquid released from the impoundment moved very quickly through the system and was diluted greatly by the water in the lake, the Quesnel River and ultimately the Fraser River.”

“Generally, bio-accumulation of contaminants in fish occurs over a longer exposure than a few days,” the bulletin stated.

“We understand what a spectacular area it is that we live in and we understand how important it is that people come and visit and that tourism operators have every opportunity to showcase the pristine beauty that we have. And that young families know that this is a great, safe place to come and raise your families,” Oakes said to the crowd.

“Now it’s our job to make sure we get the story out that the Cariboo, that Likely, is open for business.”

This article is published as a part of a joint-venture between the Vancouver Observer and DeSmog Canada.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.