When it seemed clear the newly minted B.C. NDP government would not pursue charges against Imperial Metals, owner and operator of the Mount Polley mine, for a 2014 tailings pond collapse, one woman decided to take matters into her own hands.

Bev Sellars, former chief of the Xat’sull (Soda Creek) First Nation — in whose territory the tailings pond released an estimated 25 million cubic metres of mining waste into Quesnel Lake — filed a private prosecution against Mount Polley on August 4, 2017, the final day charges could be laid.

Sellars made the case that Mount Polley has violated 15 rules under B.C.’s environmental and mining laws. She brought the private prosecution into play with the hope the province would take over the charges.

But this week B.C.’s Crown Prosecution Service quashed the case, saying there wasn’t enough evidence to proceed.

Sellars said the news came as a shock.

“I don’t understand how they can say there wasn’t enough evidence,” Sellars said. “Anyone can go out there or look online and see there was a spill. And there were consequences of the spill.”

The tailings pond collapse caused a spill that lasted over 12 hours. The massive deposit of mine waste that entered Quesnel Lake, a source of drinking water for residents of Likely, B.C., contained mercury, arsenic, selenium, copper and other heavy metals and remains settled on the lake’s floor to this day. Quesnel Lake is one of the deepest fjord lakes in the world and is home to a quarter of the province’s sockeye salmon population. The long-term effects of the spill and its contamination of fish habitat is still uncertain.

While the time limit has run out for criminal charges to be brought in B.C., federal charges under the Fisheries Act can still be laid for another 18 months.

However, Sellars is worried  federal charges won’t be laid.

“If there are no federal charges, then it’s just a free for all. Go out and pollute. So what if you have breaches of your tailings ponds? There’s nothing anyone can do,” she said.

“This is setting a dangerous precedent.”

ICYMI: Canada Has Second-Worst Mining Record in World: UN

“I think British Columbians and First Nations are rightly horrified that B.C. doesn’t appear to have the political tools or the political will to enforce consequences for the people who are responsible for this disaster.” https://t.co/UvPWhvrFeq

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) February 3, 2018

ICYMI: B.C. Quietly Grants Mount Polley Mine Permit to Pipe Mine Waste Directly Into Quesnel Lake

Kai Nagata, energy and democracy director for the democracy advocacy group Dogwood, said the quashed case presents an opportunity to reflect on B.C.’s ability to effectively regulate mines.

“I think British Columbians and First Nations are rightly horrified that B.C. doesn’t appear to have the political tools or the political will to enforce consequences for the people who are responsible for this disaster,” Nagata told DeSmog Canada.

“That the province would pass off the consequences to the feds reinforces that we don’t actually have the power in our own land to protect local people, freshwater and public health and safety.”

Nagata said there is a separate set of rules for international mining corporations that are well connected and operate in a regime that was designed for the early years of the Canadian colony.

B.C.’s mining laws were written nearly 160 years ago.

“I think it’s time to take a really close look at the rules that govern mines in B.C. and update them to a standard that reflects all the progress we’ve made in this province over the last 150 years.”

ICYMI: B.C.’s 150-Year-Old Mining Laws Are Absurdly Outdated. Guess Who Benefits From That?

Private prosecution cases are reviewed by the Crown counsel and “if our charge assessment standard is met we can assume conduct and prosecute as with any prosecution on behalf of the Crown,” Alisia Adams, spokesperson for the B.C. Prosecution Service, told DeSmog Canada.

If that standard is not met, charges are stayed, she said, adding the service doesn’t generally allow a private prosecution to proceed to trial, but they will take a case over should it proceed.

The B.C. Conservation Service Office is actively investigating the tailings pond collapse, but has missed the three-year deadline to press charges under both the B.C. Environmental Management Act and the B.C. Mines Act.

“I can say that we are aware that there is an ongoing investigation that’s continuing but because of that we can’t speak too much to the specifics of this investigation,” Adams said.

Patrick Canning, legal counsel for Sellars said he was frustrated and disappointed at the decision.

Canning said he supplied plenty of evidence to the Crown prosecutor, such as public investigations and reports filed after the incident, photographic evidence and video statements from several witnesses who were on Quesnel Lake the morning of the spill.

Canning added the Prosecution Service could have sought further evidence, as is common practice when criminal charges are brought from bodies like the RCMP.

The Ministry of Environment also could have directed the Conservation Service Office to share the findings of its ongoing investigation with the Crown prosecutor, he said.

When asked if the B.C. Ministry of Environment had done so, spokesperson David Karn indicated the results of that investigation will be forwarded to federal prosecutors.

“The Public Prosecution Service of Canada will consider all of the information gathered during the course of this investigation should charges be recommended under the Fisheries Act or other legislation,” Karn said in an e-mailed statement.

Ugo Lapointe, executive director of MiningWatch Canada, said B.C. is setting a troubling standard.

“Truly, we are not seeing a clear and strong signal from the Crown in B.C. that they want to enforce B.C. laws.”

ICYMI: British Columbians Saddled With $40 Million Clean-Up Bill as Imperial Metals Escapes Criminal Charges

Lapointe brought a federal private prosecution against Mount Polley and the B.C. government in late 2016. More than 41,000 individuals signed a petition in support of those charges.

The federal prosecution service stayed those charges in the spring of 2017, but can lay new charges or revive Lapointe’s charges until August 2019.

“Let’s contemplate for a moment that a disaster like Mount Polley with clear damage to B.C. water and B.C. forests, clear damage to fish habitat that has been documented in multiple reports — if it’s not possible to bring about charges under B.C. law, what does that tell us about B.C. law?”

Sellars said she is troubled that she does not have the opportunity to forge ahead with her private prosecution now that it’s clear the Crown will not take over her case.

“If they didn’t want to take it forward, that’s fine, but they should have allowed me to do so,” Sellars said.

ICYMI: “They’re Getting Away with It”: Locals Say No Blame Means No Compensation for Mount Polley Mine Spill Victims

Andrew Gage, staff lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law, said it’s problematic that B.C. does not allow citizens to carry forward private prosecutions.

“The absurdness of the ongoing B.C. investigation is they’ve had three years and still they couldn’t make the deadline [to press charges]. Yet, here you have someone who made that deadline and they quashed those charges.”

“The reason private prosecutions are sometimes viewed as a check and balance or safeguard to the legal system is because sometimes people don’t trust the government to do all the investigation and prosecution — to do their job, essentially,” Gage said.

“That certainly seems to be the case here.”

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.

The Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society (CCCS) abruptly resigned this month from the Technical Advisory Committee that keeps tabs on water discharges from Taseko’s Gibraltar Mine, the second-largest open-pit copper mine in Canada.

After eight years there has been “absolutely no progress” on improving the mine’s water management practices, society chair Bill Lloyd wrote in a letter sent to other members of the committee.

Gibraltar Mine, northeast of Williams Lake, is 75 per cent owned by Taseko Mines Ltd., which took over the mine site in 1999.

An application for a permit to discharge water into the Fraser River was made in 2005 and granted in 2009. In 2015 the province gave temporary permission for the mine to increase the discharge so the effects could be studied — the company now wants that discharge permit made permanent.

“Local mine staff have been receptive to our concerns, but senior mine management and the Ministry of Environment have not supported our position,” Lloyd wrote, adding that instead of working together on environmentally acceptable solutions to mining waste “the relationship that exists at present is totally dysfunctional and will result in a mine that, at closure, will still be dumping all contaminated site water into the Fraser River.”

The company says it didn’t see the resignation coming.

“We were surprised and frankly disappointed that they decided to quit,” Brian Battison, Taseko vice-president of corporate affairs, told DeSmog Canada.

“We are seeking to make the discharge permit permanent,” Battison said, adding data has been gathered on the release of mine waste into the river for over eight years. “There have been no effects on aquatic life,” he said.

But the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society, which has been a member of the mine’s advisory committee since 2009, has a mandate to protect the health of the Fraser River watershed, Lloyd wrote.

The conservation organization has been a member of the advisory committee since it started in 2009, with a mandate to represent the concerns of the general public. The committee, made up of representatives from First Nations, the company and federal and provincial governments, receives briefings from the mine operators on weekly tests on water discharged into the Fraser River and then provides feedback to the company.

Although the group disagrees with direct discharge of tailings effluent into the river, the aim was to work with the committee to improve water management and encourage the use of passive treatment, Lloyd wrote.

Taseko’s Contaminated Water Discharge into #FraserRiver Prompts Resignation of Community From #Mine Group https://t.co/CqMJLOvMOe #bcpoli #cdnpoli @MiningWatch

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) November 20, 2017

“Lax regulations” on Effluents in Waterways

Ugo Lapointe of MiningWatch Canada said mining companies should be spending more on improving water treatment before discharging effluent into the environment, but lax regulations allow them to use natural water bodies to dilute contaminated effluents.

“They are then being asked to monitor the pollution levels at 100-metres or more from the discharge point,” Lapointe told DeSmog Canada.

“This should not be allowed or, at least, be used as the very last resort if no other treatment technologies are available.”

Lloyd said his resignation comes with a sense of failure, but, as a volunteer organization, it is felt the time could be better spent on other community projects.

An Environment Ministry spokesperson confirmed that the test results have been reviewed and have not shown any problems with either the original discharge or the increased discharge.

“These results have shown that the discharge has not had any ecologically significant impacts to the Fraser River and water quality is being protected,” said David Karn in an emailed response to questions.

The discharge is needed to ensure water does not build up on site and the tailings dam does not have to be raised to store more water, Karn said.

Discharge of Mine Waste into Environment Not Correct Solution

The mine accumulates six million cubic metres of water every year, mainly from rainfall, snowmelt and groundwater, and that goes into the tailings pond along with mine water treated with lime.

Lloyd said direct discharge into the Fraser is an easy solution, but it is not the correct one for the health of the watershed.

The society wants surrounding natural wetlands to be used to treat wastewater through biological and ecological processes, instead of water from the mine being piped or ditched to the tailings storage pond and treated with chemicals.

“The cumulative effects of this practice will remain unknown for some time and it is a problem that will be inherited by our grandchildren and the taxpayer,” Lloyd wrote, adding that a fresh approach is needed with decisions based on science rather than political expediency.

“Huge resources are spent on the [committee] justifying a bad practice. These resources could be better directed to actually improving site water quality,” Lloyd said.

Battison said at the society’s urging, the mine did conduct a passive water treatment at a local wetland, but large water volumes made the practice difficult to scale.

“We are working with them and taking their ideas, but you can’t just take water and put it out into the environment as was suggested…It is potentially feasible for smaller volumes, such as when there is closure of the mine,” Battison said.

The fate of the discharge permit now rests in the hands of the provincial government.

Karn said recommendations from the Technical Advisory Committee, ministry staff and First Nations will likely go to the statutory decision maker sometime next year.

Image: Gibraltar Mine. Photo: Taseko via Facebook

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“If you’re in Vancouver this is way out in the middle of nowhere, but way out in the middle of nowhere is our backyard.”

Those are the words of Frederick Otilius Olsen Jr., the tribal president of a traditional Haida village on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska.

When I met him, he had travelled to Ketchikan, Alaska, to meet with officials about the risk posed by the mining boom across the border in British Columbia.

He stood on the boardwalk overlooking Ketchikan’s fishing fleet and waved his hands animatedly while he told me about how his culture — and southern Alaska’s economy — depends on salmon.

The week before, I’d spent several hours flying in a small fixed-wing plane over B.C.’s mining boom to capture never before seen images of the province’s largest and most remote mines.

Door removed, I captured hundreds of frames as we passed over the Red Chris copper and gold mine, which began operation in late 2014. Its tailings pond and dam rises impossible and angular out of a soft, sloping valley.

Set within the vast and largely intact headwaters of northwestern B.C.’s greatest wild salmon rivers, the Red Chris mine is just one of 10 mines either in operation, in development or in advanced exploration stages in this region.

It is owned and operated by Imperial Metals, the company responsible for the Mount Polley mine disaster in central B.C. If the name seems familiar, it’s because in 2014, a tailings dam at Mount Polley collapsed, resulting in one of the worst environmental disasters in Canadian history. All told, 24 million cubic metres of contaminated mining waste flooded into a lake —  a source of drinking water and salmon-spawning ground that feeds the Fraser River.

A new study from the United Nations Environment Programme notes Canada has had seven known mine tailings spills in the last decade, only one less than China, which tops the list.

“The increasing number and size of tailings dams around the globe magnifies the potential environmental, social and economic cost of catastrophic failure impact and the risks and costs of perpetual management,” says the report.

A view from the sky gives perspective on both the enormity of the mines but also their proximity to Alaskans who, living downstream, fear they may unfairly suffer the consequences of another Mount Polley style accident.

“This is our Amazon right here and they’re not making any more of it,” Olsen Jr. said.

The following photo essay was made possible by 103 readers, who donated more than $10,000 to bring this unprecedented assignment to life.

B.C. and Alaska share some of the world’s most productive salmon rivers. However, the region is also home to some of the largest untapped gold and copper reserves in the world. Gold is mined primarily for use in jewelry, while copper conducts both heat and electricity well, so has many uses, including in electrical equipment such as wiring, motors and solar panels.

The Todagin Plateau on the edge of Imperial Metals’ Red Chris mine is thought to have the world’s highest density of stone sheep. It is the traditional Tahltan hunting grounds for moose, sheep, goats and caribou.

The wall of the Red Chris tailings dam is 105 metres high, about the height of a 35-storey building. Tailings are the byproducts left over from mining and include finely ground rock particles, chemicals and water. The rock particles and other chemicals sometimes undergo chemical reactions during storage that generate additional byproducts, such as acid, that can more easily leach into waterways.

In recent years, B.C. has experienced an explosion in mine growth on the Alaska border. Red Chris and Brucejack mines are now in operation, while KSM and Galore Creek have the required approvals and are in development. Schaft Creek is currently under review and four more mines are in the advanced exploration stages. Unlike Mount Polley, much of the waste in these transboundary projects will be potentially acid generating, making it much more toxic.*

The Red Chris tailings pond is an unlined, earthen centre-line type tailings dam — the same design Imperial Metals used at the ill-fated Mount Polley mine. An independent panel that reviewed the Mount Polley spill predicted two additional tailings dam failures could occur every 10 years in British Columbia if mine waste disposal practices aren’t improved. One of the panel’s key recommendations was for B.C. to move away from allowing liquid tailings ponds. There are currently more than 120 tailings dams across British Columbia.

When the Red Chris gold and copper mine opened in late 2014, it became the first mine of its type to operate in the transboundary region. The Narwhal (formerly DeSmog Canada) requested a tour of the Red Chris mine but was told by an official that Red Chris does not provide “unsolicited tours.” Red Chris is owned by Imperial Metals, the same company responsible for Mount Polley. The largest Imperial Metals shareholder is oilsands billionaire and Calgary Flames co-owner Murray Edwards, who organized a $1-million Calgary fundraising dinner for former B.C. premier Christy Clark’s 2013 re-election campaign.

The Mount Polley mine had a total tailings storage volume of 44 million cubic metres. B.C.’s massive transboundary mines require much higher volumes of waste storage. The tailings facility at Red Chris can store up to 305 million cubic metres of mine waste. Galore Creek will have a storage volume of 424 million cubic metres, Shaft Creek of 588 million cubic metres and KSM a staggering 1,213 million cubic metres.

Frederick Otilius Olsen Jr. is the Haida Tribal President of the Organized Village of Kasaan and chair of the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission. “We have been trying for years to get the B.C. government to adequately address our interests and concerns, but other than nice words and vague promises, we seem to be getting nowhere,” Olsen Jr. said. “It takes a little wisdom, but sometimes to do something different, you have to do something you never did.”

The tailings pond at the Red Chris mine has a capacity of 305 million cubic metres — seven times more than the Mount Polley tailings dam, which collapsed three years ago. In the case of Mount Polley, British Columbian taxpayers ended up on the hook for $40 million of cleanup costs. No fines were levied and no charges have been laid against Mount Polley.

The Red Chris mine has an expected daily throughput of 30,000 tonnes of ore for the 25-year lifespan of the project. The Canadian government did not conduct a comprehensive assessment of the environmental impacts of the project, a process that would have opened the mine proposal to public input.

This is the view northeast across Todagin Creek, wetlands and Tatogga Lake with the road to Red Chris mine on the right. If any tailings escaped from the south dam of the Red Chris tailings pond, this is the point where the tailings would enter the Iskut river system.**

Melanie Brown, left, is a fourth generation commercial fisherman in Bristol Bay, Alaska. Heather Hardcastle, right, is director of the conservation organization Salmon Beyond Borders and a commercial fisherman in Juneau, Alaska. “We share these waters and we share these fish. There has to be an international solution,” Hardcastle said.

Massive braiding and bars from glacial sediment inputs on the Iskut river. Alluvial flood planes such as this are highly vulnerable to disruption.

A view of what is called the “Grand Canyon” of the Stikine River. Considered one of the last truly wild rivers in British Columbia, its 600-kilometre length encompasses mountain peaks and glaciers and supports some of the continent’s richest salmon habitat and wildlife populations.

If you look closely at this photo, you’ll see the drill pads perched on the mountainside (low centre right) and camp (centre left) of the Spectrum GJ gold-copper project, located 30 kilometres west of the Red Chris mine. It is just one of many examples of the lengths mining companies are going to open new mines in the isolated region.

A helicopter nearly disappears in the expanse of this glacier near the Brucejack gold mine. B.C.’s glaciers lose an estimated 22 billion cubic metres of water every year, feeding the province’s rich river systems.

A view east across Brucejack mine site and Brucejack Lake. Brucejack is an underground gold and silver mine. It will create 300 permanent jobs during its 22-year life. Owner Pretium has taken steps to minimize tailings risks by backfilling about half its mine waste in a paste mixed with cement in the underground mine. The other half will be stored in Brucejack Lake.

The Brucejack mine required the construction of an 11-kilometre glacial highway up the centreline of Knipple Glacier. The glacier retreated 300 metres between 2000 and 2011.

The Brucejack mine encampment. Potentially acid generating waste rock from the mine is stored underwater in Brucejack lake.

Joe Williams is a member of the Tlingit and former mayor of Ketchikan Borough, Alaska. He is also the owner and guide of Where the Eagle Walks, a walking tour business. Williams worries mining in the region has affected the health of oolichan populations. “The Department of Fish and Game say we can’t fish it anymore, even when it is out in the bay. It’s a sad thing. Now none of my kids know how to make oolichan oil and we can’t get it for me to teach them.”

Red Chris Mine went ahead after Imperial Metals’ largest shareholder Murray Edwards helped arrange $150 million in loans and crown corporation BC Hydro paid most of the costs for the $746-million Northwest Transmission Line into the region.

The proposed KSM mine site is in the foreground with Brucejack gold mine in the background. KSM sits atop one of the world’s largest undeveloped gold reserves. Once built, it will become one of the largest gold and copper mine in North America, with three open pits and two underground mines. The project initially entailed mining under an active glacier, but that glacier has now retreated. The project will require the construction of two 23-kilometre-long tunnels to deposit mine waste into a tailings impoundment. At 239 metres tall, the tailings dam wall for KSM will be higher than the Shangri-La, the tallest building in Vancouver and the tailings pond will hold 27 times more waste than was held in the Mount Polley tailings dam.*** 

The Tulsequah Chief mine, a zinc and copper mine close to the Alaska border, has been leaking acid mine drainage into the Tulsequah River since it was first shut down in 1957. Attempts to re-open the mine have failed, along with several promises to clean up the site.

Other jurisdictions, such as Alaska and Quebec, demand large financial securities, paid up front to ensure companies are held responsible for any damage.

“If we were to put the bar higher and require payment of financial securities ahead of permitting and ahead of mining, this would be one one way to get rid of the mines that would be marginal and you would end up with the mines that are safest,” Ugo LaPointe of MiningWatch Canada told The Narwhal.

Although most of the mines in this region have a life expectancy of 20 to 50 years, their toxic legacy continues far beyond. This contaminated tailings pond of the Premier gold mine in the Salmon Valley is one example. Originally built in 1910, it operated steadily for 50 years and sporadically for a few years after that. It opened again in 1989 to close once again in 1996. This toxic tailings pound is currently being upgraded to today’s standards so it can be reopened in the future.

A grizzly bear fishes for salmon in Fish Creek, Alaska, just downstream of the Premier gold mine.

Ketchikan, Alaska, just across the border from British Columbia has dubbed itself the “salmon capital of the world.” Ketchikan’s economy is based upon government services, tourism and commercial fishing.

The last catch of the season is offloaded and processed at Alaska General Seafoods in Ketchikan. Alaska’s fishing industry employs nearly 60,000 workers, of which nearly half are fishermen.

Salmon canning at Alaska General Seafoods processing plant in Ketchikan, Alaska.

The initial mechanical processing and canning of salmon at Alaska General Seafoods in Ketchikan, Alaska.

Chief Shakes Tribal House in Wrangell, Alaska. Coastal indigenous cultures are closely tied to salmon and have flourished here for more than 10,000 years.

Brenda Schwartz-Yeager is a fourth generation Wrangell-based Alaskan. As the owner and operator of Alaska Charters and Adventures, Schwartz-Yeager is a confident navigator of the ever-changing Stikine River. “What makes the Stikine so special and unique is its vast wildness,” she said. “We just don’t have many places of this size, and scope, and wildness left on the earth.”

Icebergs and Castle Mountain as seen from Shakes Lake, which feeds the Stikine River in Alaska. Traveling the lower Stikine in 1879, American conservationist John Muir called it “a Yosemite 100 miles long.”

— With files and additional reporting from Emma Gilchrist and Carol Linnitt

This photo essay was funded by The Narwhal readers like you. Want more journalism like this? Become a member today.

Updated on Oct. 30, 2017, at 7:05 p.m. PST. The transboundary map in this article was updated to reflect the fact that the Galore Creek mine is in the development stage, rather than operational as previously stated.

Updated on Nov. 2, 2017, at 10 a.m. PST to correct the lake in the photo to Tattoga Lake, not Todagin Lake. Thank you to the reader with the sharp eye who pointed this out to us.

Updated on Oct. 31, 2017, at 10:45 a.m. PST. The article was updated to reflect the fact that the KSM mine will no longer require mining under an active glacier, as that glacier has now retreated from the proposed pit area. The description of of KSM has also been corrected to refer to the project as one of the largest undeveloped gold and copper mines in North America, rather than the largest undeveloped open-pit gold and copper mine in North America.

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.

The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) has approved a tailings management plan from oilsands giant Suncor, despite the plan relying on “newly patented, unproven technology” that will require decades of monitoring.

Wednesday’s decision came only six months after the AER rejected Suncor’s proposed plan for the same project because it relied on unproven technology and a 70-year timeline for reclamation. The regulator only later agreed to re-review the plan.

So what changed? Uh, nothing.

“Suncor really hasn’t budged an inch in terms of actually changing anything,” said Jodi McNeill, policy analyst at the Pembina Institute, in an interview with DeSmog Canada.

Critics are also concerned that the approval will set the tone for the remaining seven tailings management plans: all of which depend on unproven technologies in some capacity.

“Suncor has been operating for 50 years: they shouldn’t be given another 15 years to monitor and confirm tailings treatments that may or may not work,” said Tzeporah Berman, former co-chair of the Alberta Oil Sands Advisory Group, in an interview with DeSmog Canada.

“It is not a matter of the AER asking for more details. It’s that oilsands companies should not continue to operate if they once again have shown they don’t know how to clean up the mess they make. They have other technologies they can use. They just don’t want to pay for them.”

Alberta Approves Suncor #Tailings Plan Despite Reliance on ‘Unproven Technology’ https://t.co/sdUMYLdBBs #oilsands @james_m_wilt pic.twitter.com/rEZb8wfHDu

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) October 27, 2017

Industry Has ‘Taken Advantage of Flexibility’ of Regulator

It’s been a long and windy road to get to this point.

Directive 085 was introduced by the AER in mid-2016 to replace the failed Directive 074, which was implemented in 2009 and saw every way company overshoot its respective tailing target without any consequence. The new regulations were intended to be less prescriptive and more flexible from plan to plan, working in tandem with the AER.

As evidenced by the approved Suncor plan, oilsands companies haven’t changed their ways at all.

“Industry just hasn’t held up their side of the bargain: they’ve come back with really vague, inadequate criteria and plans to water cap fluid tailings with extremely long reclamation timelines,” McNeill said. “They’ve taken advantage of that flexibility rather than using it as a way to come to the table with ambitious plans.”

The technology that McNeill referred to, water capping, would see fine tailings covered by freshwater to create an “end pit lake” that would eventually transition into a healthy aquatic ecosystem.

Glenn Miller, professor of natural resources and environmental science at the University of Nevada, has previously described end pit lakes as “a grand experiment that is highly uncertain and problematic.”

Suncor Must Provide Plan by 2023, Only 10 Years Before Planned Mine Closure

Suncor’s revised application included a supplementary chemical treatment called Permanent Aquatic Storage Solution (PASS), intended to keep the fine tailings consolidated at the bottom of the pit.

“It’s just another supplementary component of water capping, “McNeill said. “And it doesn’t address the fact that water capping oilsands tailings itself is unproven, risky, extremely unpopular amongst stakeholders and unapproved by the regulator.”

McNeill said that if that fails, Suncor’s fallback plan would require hundreds of years of monitoring and there would be a “really high likelihood that it’s going to sink into an unmanaged swamp.”

Key Tailings Testing Facility Still MIA

As previously reported by DeSmog Canada, the Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) — a research alliance of most oilsands producers — has long talked about constructing a massive test facility called the Demonstration Pit Lakes Project, featuring more than a dozen mock tailings ponds.

According to COSIA’s website, the facility was scheduled to open in 2017. Yet there’s still no indication that construction has even started on the project. That means the key testing facility planned to determine the viability of end pit lake technology is totally MIA, despite it needing at least 15 years of testing and monitoring to adequately evaluate.

The AER noted in its approval that the Government of Alberta is expected to create policy on water capping and end pit lakes, with Suncor proposing “final closure outcomes” for the plan by 2023.

But even if the Demonstration Pit Lakes Project opened tomorrow, that would only allow for five or six years of monitoring: less than half of what’s required for proper evaluation.

“They’re all banking on the results of these different COSIA projects to guide the use of those technologies,” McNeill said. “The difficult thing there is it’s ultimately going to take decades to really understand all of the implications of this.”

Oilsands Companies Have Only Contributed $900 Million of $20 Billion in Securities

Compounding the problem is the lack of security deposits in the province’s Mine Financial Security Program, established to prevent Albertans from having to pay clean-up costs if a company goes bankrupt.

Currently, there’s only $1.4 billion in the fund, which is around $19 billion short of what’s required for the conservative estimates of potential costs.

“The longer they are allowed to exist the more likely it is the taxpayers of Alberta and Canada will be stuck with the enormous cost of cleaning them up,” said Kevin Taft, former Alberta Liberal Party leader and author of the recent book Oil’s Deep State, in an interview with DeSmog Canada. “When the bills come due for the tailings ponds in 15 years of more, Suncor may not even be in business.”

McNeill added that there’s a very concerning vagueness around timelines and penalties for non-compliance: “There’s no hard stop, no speed limits.”

Suncor Approval May Set Precedent For Remaining Tailings Plan Reviews

Ultimately, the AER receives its marching orders from the provincial government.

And even though Premier Rachel Notley was an ardent critic of tailings management while opposition environment critic, her government has failed to tighten acceptable parameters for reclamation or address long-standing criticisms of the AER, including lack of enforcement power, a mixed mandate and overly close relationship with industry.

“This shows that the AER still doesn’t have any teeth,” said Mike Hudema, climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace Canada.

“We’ve had four straight premiers pledge to remove tailings ponds from Alberta’s landscape because of the toxic dangers that they pose. And what this announcement says is that we’re going to continue to see tailings lakes not only grow in size but be around for the next century.”

McNeill added that Pembina Institute has had “a lot of difficulty in getting any level of responsiveness” from the province when it comes to handing down stronger directions to the regulator.

“This is what happens when a regulator is fully paid for and apparently run by the industry,” Taft concluded.

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.

Canada has more mine tailings spills than most other countries in the world, according to a report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which urges governments and the mining industry to improve safety, accountability and oversight.

During the last decade there have been seven known mine tailings spills in Canada, only one less than reported in China, which tops the list, says the report.

The UNEP assessment “Mine Tailings Storage: Safety Is No Accident” looks at 40 tailings accidents, including the 2014 Mount Polley disaster that saw 24 million cubic metres of sludge and mine waste flooding into nearby waterways.

It is estimated that, since 2008, mining waste failures have killed more than 340 people, damaged hundreds of kilometres of waterways, affected drinking water sources, wiped out fish populations, destroyed heritage sites and monuments and jeopardized the livelihoods of many communities.

And the documented disasters may not tell the whole story as there is no global database of mine sites and tailings storage facilities — something the report calls for.

“This is just a glimpse of what we know. A lot of the data is missing. We need an international database of mining spills and mining failures. If you don’t collect that solid data, you are not in the best position to correct the problems,” Ugo LaPointe of MiningWatch Canada told DeSmog Canada.

“We should be asking the regulators and the industry why no one on the planet is tracking spills and failures.”

The root of the problem is that environmental and human safety is not the first priority for mining operations, says the report, which recommends that regulators, industry and communities move to a “zero-failure objective” rather than focusing on the bottom line.

“The increasing number and size of tailings dams around the globe magnifies the potential environmental, social and economic cost of catastrophic failure impact and the risks and costs of perpetual management,” says the report.

“These risks present a challenge for this generation and, if not addressed now, a debt we will leave to future generations.”

Canada Has Second-Worst #Mining Record in World: UN https://t.co/wHdbhwaiAM #mountpolley #bcpoli #cdnpoli @MiningWatch pic.twitter.com/r5ED6hkkUd

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) October 27, 2017

Jessica Draker, Mining Association of Canada (MAC) communications director, said the organization wholeheartedly agrees with the United Nations call for a zero-failure objective.

“In fact, MAC and its members committed to a goal of zero catastrophic failures of tailings facilities and no significant adverse effects on the environment and human health well before the report was published,” she said.

MAC’s tailings management guide is recognized as leading the field globally, Draker said in an e-mailed response to questions.

After the Mount Polley mine disaster, MAC struck an independent task force — with 29 recommendations now being incorporated in the guidelines — and held a parallel internal review, Draker said.

“Next month MAC will release a revised Tailings Guide informed by these reviews,” she said.

The guide will incorporate recommendations by the Mount Polley expert panel, said Draker, adding that it is important to learn from mistakes such as Mount Polley.

The United Nations report does not speculate about why countries such as China and Canada have a high dam failure rate, but the data underlines that Canada is doing poorly, with almost 20 per cent of the documented failures, LaPointe said.

“The problem is that the industry is not yet acknowledging publicly that there are too many financially risky, marginal mines that are being permitted,” he said.

Marginal companies cut corners in safety, dam construction and monitoring and then do not have the financial capacity to ensure the safety of people and the environment around those sites, LaPointe said.

Alaska and Quebec demand large financial securities, paid up front, and other provinces should follow suit and consider the financial profile of each mine as one of the criteria for approval, LaPointe suggested.

“If we were to put the bar higher and require payment of financial securities ahead of permitting and ahead of mining, this would be one one way to get rid of the mines that would be marginal and you would end up with the mines that are safest,” he said.

A paper by researchers Lindsay Bowker and David Chambers, published this month in the journal Environments, draws the connection between economics and high failure of mining waste storage facilities and concludes that financially marginal mines push existing infrastructure beyond design capacity.

The paper estimates that between one third and one half of technically operating mines are no longer economically viable or never were viable.

However, regulators stand by passively, assuming production of the mines will resume and jobs will be retained, despite the flaws in infrastructure, it says.

“These are not assumptions supported by available data or expert economic analysis,” says the paper.

Meanwhile, B.C. is facing increasing criticism from Southeast Alaskans who say they do not trust B.C.’s regulation or oversight after the Mount Polley spill and decades of inaction on the Tulsequah Chief, which is leaking acid mine drainage into a tributary of one of Alaska’s major salmon rivers.

With up to 10 mines planned on the B.C. side of the border, Southeast Alaskan tribes, fishing organizations, local politicians and environmental groups are pushing for the U.S. federal government to step in and mediate water quality concerns.

“There aren’t currently any enforceable protections for Southeast salmon rivers should Canadian mine runoff impact water quality,” said Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission Chairman Frederick Olsen Jr.

Among the concerns is the Red Chris mine, owned by Imperial Metals, which also owns Mount Polley. Despite recommendations by the Mount Polley expert panel for companies to move to dry tailings, Red Chris uses a tailings pond that has seven times the capacity of Mount Polley.

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This article originally appeared on the Pembina Institute website. This is part 2 of a series on the last 50 years of the oilsands industry. Read part 1 here.

The sheer size and scope of Alberta’s some 20 oilsands tailings ponds is unprecedented for any industry in the world.

According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, one of these ponds — the Mildred Lake Settling Basin — is the world’s largest dam by volume of construction material.

Since oilsands mining operations started in 1967, 1.3 trillion litres of fluid tailings has accumulated in these open ponds on the Northern Alberta landscape. This is enough toxic waste to fill 400,000 Olympic swimming pools.

Unlike tailings produced from conventional hard rock mining, the solids in oilsands tailings will take centuries to settle to the bottom of the ponds. As a result, it is impossible to dewater the waste for timely reclamation without significant intervention.

This problem was recognized as early as 1973 by the Government of Alberta, which identified oilsands tailings as untreatable with existing technologies.

The government recognized that the “continuous accumulation of liquid tailings” was not acceptable and that the ponds must be “restricted in their size, location and duration of use.”

Unfortunately, that is not what happened.

For the next five decades, industry pushed its tailings problem into the future with promises that forthcoming technologies would emerge to deal with them. As the years passed and tailings continued to grow, both industry and government assured Albertans that a silver-bullet technology was just one lab discovery away.

In 2010 Suncor’s CEO Rick George announced “massive change” on the tailings front, which would soon reduce Suncor’s ponds from eight to one. In 2013, Premier Alison Redford declared that tailings ponds would “disappear from Alberta’s landscape in the very near future.”

These promises were never met, however, and today the tailings problem is worse than ever.

According to new plans currently under review by the Alberta Energy Regulator, industry is proposing to let tailings continue to accumulate until 2037 when there will be over 1.5 trillion litres. That will equate to seven decades — from 1967 to 2037 — of industry seeking a technological solution and failing to meaningfully address this massive environmental problem.

Figure 1. Fluid tailing ponds volume growth since 1968

With tailings ponds continuing to grow on the landscape, the risk of failure poses an ever-increasing risk to communities, the environment, and taxpayers.

Moreover, should the oilsands mining industry not survive accelerating global transitions toward decarbonized energy systems, Albertans must be protected from being left behind to foot the bill for enormous clean-up costs.

The Problem of Alberta’s Growing #Oilsands #TailingsPonds is Worse Than Ever https://t.co/nwszGniwa0 @Pembina #ableg #cdnpoli

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) October 23, 2017

However, less than 8 per cent of these costs is held as security by the province, leaving Albertan taxpayers exposed to a significant financial risk for tens of billions of dollars if major companies are no longer around when it’s finally time to reclaim these sites.

Looking at these grim facts, it’s worth asking: when will we as Albertans say enough is enough? Companies have kicked the can down the road on cleaning up their tailings for five decades now, but industry’s own forecasts indicate that the worst is still yet to come.

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In early September, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced more than $360 million in funding for roads to service mining operations in two remote regions of the Yukon.

There’s just one catch: most of those mines haven’t even been approved yet.  

Some worry the influx of investment — $247 million from the federal government and $112 million from the territory — handcuffs the region to mining development that hasn’t been demonstrated to serve the community’s long-term interests.

Don Reid, conservation zoologist for the Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada, said the timing of the announcement is problematic and calls the objectivity of the mine review process into question.

"By having invested in these existing roads, the Yukon territorial government would in the future be loathe to refuse ongoing development of…new mines that these infrastructure dollars were specifically earmarked to help,” Reid told DeSmog Canada.

“They have biased their supposed neutrality in having the final say on future environmental impact assessments."

The funding, secured under the New Building Canada Fund, will foster the Yukon Resource Gateway Project, something Trudeau promised will “help create good, middle class jobs, promote long-term economic prosperity, and support a strong, sustainable North.”

The Yukon Resources Gateway Project, described as providing upgrades to 650 kilometres of existing roads, bridges and culverts, is aimed at facilitating year-round access to the potential mines and other undeveloped mineral deposits.

“Modern infrastructure is key to developing and properly managing the incredible natural resources we have at our fingertips," Trudeau said.

The resources Trudeau is refering to include the proposed Selwyn-Chihong lead-zinc mine and Golden Predator's 3 Aces gold mine in the Nahanni range near the border with the Northwest Territories.

In the Dawson range south-east of Dawson City, they include the Goldcorp Coffee gold mine, the gold, copper, molybdenum and silver Casino mine and Copper North’s Carmacks Copper mine.

Proposed Mines Include World's Largest Tailings Dam

The projects are all in various stages of review with the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board (YESAB). Goldcorp’s application for the Coffee gold mine in particular was suspended this past July, for failing to adequately consult with affected First Nations.

Local First Nations and conservation groups alike have doubts about the claimed benefits of road construction, and see significant threats to the local landscape and wildlife from development of both the roads and mines.

Of major concern to the Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation is the potential extension and upgrade of a road in the nation’s traditional territory, chief Russell Blackjack told DeSmog Canada.

“Our members have serious concerns with both the extension of the Freegold Road into un-roaded territory, and with the proposed Casino Mine the road might serve,” Blackjack said.

The Casino Mine, currently facing the territory’s most stringent level of review, would be the largest mine in the Yukon’s history and contribute more annual greenhouse gasses than all of the Yukon.

The 22-year project would also entail the construction of the world’s largest wet tailings dam — which, at 286m, would become the highest structure in Canada west of Toronto — using the same technology employed by the Mount Polley mine which suffered a massive dam failure in 2014.

The Casino Mining Corporation is required to submit the Environmental and Socio-economic Statement component of its project proposal to the Yukon assessment board by December 31, 2017.

“We may decide to oppose the project,” Blackjack said.

Freegold road. Photo: Matt Jacques for DeSmog Canada.

Freegold road. Photo: Matt Jacques for DeSmog Canada.

Roads Further Fragment Wildlife Habitat

Reid said increased road access in both the Dawson and Nahanni ranges is of particular concern for mountain caribou — both the Forty-mile and Nahanni herds — moose, wolverine and grizzly bear.

“These will be affected primarily because increased and improved access will result in increased hunting pressure and reduced use of some key habitats by these animals as they try to avoid the disturbances caused by the roads."

The Klaza caribou herd’s range sits squarely in the Dawson range, and seems positioned to experience a significant impact from any increase in human activity in the area as well.

Lewis Rifkind, Mining Analyst for the Yukon Conservation Society, said environmental impacts and habitat fragmentation are big concerns in both areas.

“Because once the roads go in, you can kiss a lot of [habitat] goodbye,” Rifkind said.

“The caribou don’t necessarily avoid the roads but they won’t linger because they can be easily predated. It’s a ‘wolf highway’ effect, where wolves and human hunters can see for miles and travel quickly.”

Blackjack said beyond caribou and moose concerns in his nation’s traditional territory, many of the region’s waterways are salmon bearing.

“There are a lot of creeks that they have to bridge across. Once they open the roadway there’s the potential of six mines opening up, and it will provide easy access to placer miners too. As it is, that place is just staked right out (for placer mining).”

Roads for Resources Developers, But Taxpayers Bear Cost

Beyond the potential impacts on wildlife, there is the lingering question of who ought to pay for the development and upkeep of the roads.

While federal investment in infrastructure is far from new to the north, Rifkind said the new funding announcement is different.

“This is not for Yukoners, these are resource roads,” he said. “While the proposed routes are not cast in stone, none of the roads lead to communities.”

“Taxpayers are basically funding to upgrade these roads for companies,” Rifkind said, noting one of the companies, Selwyn Chihong, is a Chinese State-Owned Enterprise.

In September Yukon premier Sandy Silver posed with a one million dollar gold bar recovered from the exploration phase of the 3 Aces project.

“If they’re so profitable that just at the exploration phase they can produce a million dollar gold bar, are taxpayer dollars required to upgrade a road that by and large only they are using?” Rifkind said.

Chris Rider, Executive Director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s Yukon chapter, said the mining projects come at a time when the conservation of development-free, roadless spaces is of increasing importance.

“We’re talking about valuing a handful of mining projects over our wild spaces at a time when wilderness is disappearing at alarming rates around the world,” Rider told DeSmog Canada.  

The benefits from these projects to the territory are short-lived, especially given the current mining royalty regime, Rider said, adding communities are often left with scarred landscapes and non-public road infrastructure which the public is left to maintain.

“Imagine instead if we had taken those funds and dedicated them to an innovation fund to invest in sustainable entrepreneurship across the territory — twenty years down the road we would have been so much further ahead environmentally and economically.”

Even if both the roads and mines go ahead as planned, the socio-economic impacts on affected communities may not be what they were intended.

Chief Blackjack said the mines could lead to massive population growth.

“I don’t think we have the sustainable resources in the community to hold a big population boom like that,” he said.

There is no official timeline for consultation and review of the Yukon Resource Gateway Project, but Blackjack said that process should only proceed with both the Yukon government and First Nations negotiating.

“We have a letter from the Premier stating that the project components in First Nations traditional territory will not proceed in the absence of project agreements with those First Nations,” Blackjack said.

“So we take that as word from the Yukon government to uphold our end of negotiations in a trusting manner.”’

That Time Trudeau Announced $360 Million for Roads to #Yukon Mines That Haven't Been Approved Yet https://t.co/2rgb95zIa6 @YukonConservati

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) October 12, 2017

Image: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Yukon Premier Sandy Silver. Photo: Prime Minister's Photo Gallery

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This week marks the three-year anniversary of the Mount Polley mine disaster, which sent 24 million cubic metres of mining waste into Quesnel Lake, making it one of the worst environmental disasters in Canadian history.

It’ll be a stinging reminder of the tailings pond collapse for local residents, especially considering no charges have been laid against Imperial Metals, owner and operator of Mount Polley.

Come August 5 it will be too late for B.C. to lay charges, given a three-year statute of limitations — however federal charges can be laid for another two years.

But here’s the thing: under the federal Fisheries Act, Mount Polley can receive a maximum of $12 million in fines: $6 million for causing harm to fish and fish habitat and $6 million for dumping deleterious substances without a permit into fish bearing waters.

Compare that with the estimated $40 million in Mount Polley cleanup costs borne by B.C. taxpayers. And take into account that in 2016, Imperial Metals generated over $428 million in revenue and owns more than $1.5 billion in assets, according to the company’s annual report.

“Fines and sanctions are pitiful for environmental damages in Canada, and it’s part of the systemic and structural problem for ensuring greater environmental protection,” Ugo Lapointe, Canadian coordinator for MiningWatch, told DeSmog Canada.

“There’s little incentive for corporations to comply with environmental laws, or invest in more protective measures, if the consequences for failing to comply are cheaper.”

U.S. Environmental Fines Dwarf Canada’s

For examples of more meaningful environmental penalties, Canadians need look no further than the U.S.

In 2016 a Florida fertilizer manufacturer’s tailings pond drained millions of litres of wastewater into an underlying aquifer when a giant sinkhole appeared under the impoundment, tearing through the pond’s liner.  

The company was fined $2 billion USD for improper waste and chemical management (that’s 167 times the maximum fine Mount Polley could face under the Fisheries Act).

In 2014, Alpha Natural Resources was ordered to pay $27.5 million USD for thousands of environmental violations at the company’s 79 coal mines and 25 processing plants across the States. The company was also ordered by the EPA to pay $200 million in upgrades to its facilities to avoid future infractions.

Meantime back in Canada, the largest fine in Canadian history for an environmental infraction was for $7.5 million.

That penalty was handed out in 2014 to owners of the Bloom Lake mine in Quebec who pled guilty to 45 separate charges under the Fisheries Act.

The second largest fine in Canada, at $4.4 million, was just handed out to Prairie Mines in Alberta for the release of 67 million cubic metres of tailings waste into two creeks that feed into the Athabasca River. That spill was nearly 40,000 times smaller than the Mount Polley disaster. Of that total, $3.5 million was paid in federal penalties, with the additional $900,000 paid in provincial fines.

The third largest fine of $3.4 million was handed out to Teck Metals for three offences under the Fisheries Act after the company released effluent into B.C.’s Columbia River.

Mount Polley Disaster Didn’t Change the Way Mining is Done in B.C.

The absence of provincial fines or charges in the wake of the Mount Polley mine spill worries Nikki Skuce, director of Northern Confluence, an initiative that aims to improve land-use decisions in B.C. watersheds.

“It just seems incredible for what is called the largest environmental disaster in B.C.’s history, there are no fines, no charges, no penalties,” Skuce told DeSmog Canada.

“Our laws are that weak.”

Further increasing concern is the fact best practices, including recommendations made by the Independent Expert Panel on Mount Polley, haven’t consistently been applied in the approval of new mines along the B.C./Alaska border.

Ten new mines are approved or under construction along the B.C.-Alberta border, including Imperial Metals’ Red Chris mine which was approved with a wet tailings pond impoundment similar in design to Mount Polley.

After the Mount Polley tailings spill, experts recommended the use of safer, but more costly, dry stack tailings.

“The Independent Expert Panel on Mount Polley concluded that we can expect two failures every decade if ‘business as usual continues,’ ” Skuce said, adding multiple wet tailings impoundments have been approved at mines of much greater scale than Mount Polley.

“With no full bonding requirements and potential fines low under B.C. and federal laws, companies have few incentives to invest in techniques like dry stacking that lower reclamation costs and reduce risk of spills,” Skuce said.

“Why use best practices and best available technology if you may never be held accountable if disaster strikes?”

Image: Mount Polley mine disaster. Photo: Cariboo Regional District via Youtube

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B.C.’s new Minister of Environment, George Heyman, says he identifies with the many British Columbians eager for the outcome of the single ongoing investigation into the Mount Polley mine disaster that sent 24 million cubic metres of mining waste into Quesnel Lake on August 4, 2014.

“I have spoken with the Parliamentary Secretary to the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change. We are in agreement that British Columbians deserve a rigorous and independent investigation to determine exactly what went wrong and to ensure any person or company that broke the law is held responsible,” Heyman said in a press statement released Wednesday, two days before the provincial statute of limitations for Mount Polley expires.

As B.C. approaches the three-year anniversary of the incident, British Columbians, including local residents directly impacted by the spill, have expressed disappointment that Imperial Metals, owner and operator of Mount Polley, has received no charges and no fines for the disaster, considered one of the worst environmental incidents in Canadian history.

“A disaster like this should never have happened in B.C., and it must never happen again,” Heyman said.

#MountPolley Investigation Still On, Federal Charges ‘In Play,’ Says BC Environment Minister https://t.co/p5xLwzp1Lr @GeorgeHeyman #bcpoli

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) August 3, 2017

As DeSmog Canada recently reported, while B.C. has reached the expiration date for provincial charges, the statute of limitations has not run out for federal charges under the Fisheries Act.

While two provincial investigations in the Mount Polley spill have been conducted, neither recommended charges or fines be levied against the company.

Yet one investigation is currently ongoing by the B.C. Conservation Service Office alongside the Department of Fisheries and Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Heyman said the current investigation is “complex and thorough.”

Information gathered during the investigation will be brought to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, “should charges be recommended,” Heyman said.

“Potential charges under the federal Fisheries Act remain very much in play and, in fact, potential penalties are more significant.”

Under the Fisheries Act, Mount Polley could face $6 million in penalties for causing harm to fish and fish habitat and an additional $6 million for dumping deleterious substances without a permit into fish bearing waters.

“While the three-year anniversary of the disaster also brings us to the statute of limitations on provincial charges, British Columbians should know the overall objective continues to be ensuring a complete investigation,” he said.

“I have full confidence in the work of these law enforcement officials and I know that many concerned British Columbians join me in looking forward to the outcome of this important investigation.” 

Image: B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman. Photo: Stephen Hui via the Pembina Institute. Used with permission.

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As the three-year anniversary of the Mount Polley mine disaster approaches, so too does the deadline for the province to lay any charges against mine owner Imperial Metals.

Considered one of the worst environmental disasters in Canadian history, the failure of the Mount Polley tailings pond sent an estimated 25 million cubic metres of contaminated mine waste flooding into Quesnel Lake, a source of drinking water for local residents of Likely, B.C., on August 4, 2014.

“I would have expected something to have happened by now,” fisheries biologist and Likely resident Richard Holmes told DeSmog Canada. “I know they had a lot of information to sift through but it has been three years. I’m hopeful there will be some charges forthcoming.”

While the time limit for provincial charges runs out in August, federal charges, including for violations of the Fisheries Act, can be brought for another two years.

An investigation is ongoing by the Conservation Service Office, aided by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Environment and Climate Change Canada.  

Meanwhile, the B.C. government granted Mount Polley permission to drain the mine directly into Quesnel Lake, where the vast majority of the spilled mine waste remains to this day. The B.C. government also gave Imperial Metals the go-ahead to build the Red Chris Mine in northwestern B.C., with the same tailings technology used at Mount Polley — despite experts recommending otherwise.

“I think the mining company is ahead now,” Holmes said. “Everything seems to have fallen in their favour since this disaster. Before the disaster they were looking at building a water treatment facility. Now they have basically a large filter in place and they just release everything directly into the lake.”

“I’m sure they’re happy about that.”

Alberta Coal Mine Slapped with $4.5 Million Fine for 2013 Tailings Spill

The absence of fines for the Mount Polley disaster was highlighted by a recent $4.5 million penalty handed out to a coal mining company in Alberta for a 2013 spill that released an estimated 670 cubic metres of tailings into tributaries of the Athabasca River. That spill was nearly 40,000 times smaller than the Mount Polley disaster.

Last month, the company responsible for the spill, Prairie Mines and Royalty, pleaded guilty to two violations of the federal Fisheries Act as well as one violation of the Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act.

Over $1 million in federal fines were used to fund research for fish habitat and recovery while an additional $2.1 million was paid to the Environmental Damages Fund.

Provincially, the company paid $363,000 in fines toward a dam research project considering the safe storage of water at coal mines as well as $370,000 for an environmental education project for indigenous youth, the CBC reports.

Ugo Lapointe, Canadian program coordinator for MiningWatch Canada, said Mount Polley could still face similar repercussions in B.C.

“It took nearly four years to see those charges brought forward in the case of the coal spill,” Lapointe told DeSmog Canada. “So, technically, Mount Polley timing is still comparable.”

However, Lapointe added, a $4.5 million fine may not be enough to encourage large mining corporations to change the quality of mine management.

He added the maximum penalty for violating the federal fisheries act is $12 million, $6 million for causing harm to fish and fish habitat and $6 million for dumping deleterious substances without a permit.

MiningWatch brought a private prosecution against the Mount Polley Mining Corporation and the B.C. government for violations of the Fisheries Act last fall but the federal government asked the courts to stay the charges, a request that was made before MiningWatch was given the opportunity to present evidence. The case was dismissed this spring.

“The federal government is currently reviewing its Fisheries Act,” Lapointe said. “We think it is also time it reviews the fines and possible criminal charges for those responsible of polluting Canadian waterways and aquatic habitats.”

No Charges, No Fines For #MountPolley Mine Disaster as Three-Year Legal Deadline Approaches https://t.co/yk0H3yOBiC #bcpoli @jjhorgan

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) July 23, 2017

Underfunded Liability for B.C. Mines an Estimated $1.5 Billion

B.C. taxpayers bear the lion’s share of liability stemming from the province’s many mines.

A 2016 study conducted by economist Robyn Allan for the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs found financial assurance policies for mines are “woefully inadequate” leaving more than $1.5 billion in underfunded liability on the shoulders of everyday British Columbians.

The exact costs incurred by mines, for expenses like environmental disasters like Mount Polley as well as for reclamation of abandoned mines, is no longer made available to British Columbians, Allan found, stating the price tag could be even higher.

British Columbians were on the hook for an estimated $40 million in cleanup and reclamation costs for the Mount Polley mine spill.

There are more than 120 tailings dams in British Columbia and despite recommendations made to the B.C. government after the Mount Polley disaster, risky mine procedures, including the practice of storing mine waste in giant wet tailings ponds continues to this day.

Since the Mount Polley disaster three new mines have been approved with wet tailings impoundments, including the giant KSM mine in northwestern B.C. that was recently granted federal approval to construct a tailings dam in fish bearing waters.

At least 10 new mines are proposed or under construction along the B.C./Alaska border, leaving Alaskans concerned about the province’s poor record of mine management.

“There are examples all over the world of responsible mining and that should become law in B.C.” Holmes said.

“But I haven’t seen any of the laws change. They’ve had three years to change them and have had recommendations coming from the Mount Polley investigation panel,” he said.

“But nothing’s changed. If I was an Alaskan I would be really worried about B.C. mines.”

Holmes said he would be worried in particular about the Red Chris mine which is owned and operated by Imperial Metals, the company responsible for the Mount Polley mine, and which also uses wet tailings technology.

“I hope the new government in B.C. will address those concerns. We haven’t done a very good job of looking out for our neighbours.”

Image: The Mount Polley mine disaster, August 2014. Photo: Cariboo Regional District

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Two fish-bearing creeks will be used for 2.3 billion tonnes of toxic tailings from the proposed Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell (KSM) mine in northwest B.C., wiping out habitat for several populations of small Dolly Varden fish.

Seabridge Gold Inc. has been given federal government approval to use upper tributaries of the North Treaty and South Teigen Creeks, which flow into the Nass and Bell-Irving rivers, for tailings from the planned gold, copper and molybdenum mine 65 kilometres northwest of Stewart and 30 kilometres from the Alaska border.

Once in operation, KSM is set to become the largest open pit mine in North America. Construction is set to begin in 2017.

While the company has pledged to compensate for the loss with development of additional fish habitat in nearby streams and will relocate about 30,000 fish from the affected creeks, Alaskans say they were not consulted, despite a recently-signed Memorandum of Understanding between B.C. and Alaska.

There are also growing concerns on the Alaskan side of the border that Canada is making a habit of allowing fish-bearing streams to be used for tailings.

“This just underscores our frustration about really being shut out of the process,” said Heather Hardcastle of Juneau-based Salmon Beyond Borders, pointing out that fish do not abide by national boundaries.

Seabridge plans to build 23-kilometre tunnels to take the mining waste to the approved watersheds on the Canadian side of the border but the closest watershed is the Unuk River, one of Alaska’s premier salmon rivers.

Rendering of the KSM mine showing the tailings management area. Image: Rivers Without Borders

Chris Zimmer of Rivers Without Borders emphasized that what happens to salmon and steelhead trout in the Bell-Irving and Nass rivers affects Alaska fishermen.

“Tailings are the most toxic of materials and they would be draining into world-class salmon and steelhead rivers,” he said.

Hardcastle and Zimmer question why the Canadian government is handing out amendments to the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations (MMER) to allow fish habitat to be used for tailings.

“These MMER amendments have become almost a de facto process. The extraordinary has become the normal way of doing business,” Zimmer said.

“It seems like this is becoming the standard in Canada and B.C., to authorise the filling-in of fish-bearing water bodies with toxic tailings in perpetuity. We saw the same authority granted at Red Chris last year.”

Red Chris, another B.C. mine close to the Alaska border, is owned by Imperial Metals, the same company that owns the Mount Polley mine, where the tailings dam collapsed in 2014 sending 25 million cubic metres of sludge and tailings flooding into the Quesnel watershed.

After the Mount Polley disaster an expert engineering panel recommended that B.C. move to dry stack tailings, a system of pressing about 85 per cent of the moisture from tailings and then stacking them in a pile.

However, companies say it is too expensive to move to dry stacking and the KSM mine will have a 239-metre earthen dam — one of the highest tailings pond dams in the world — holding back two billion tonnes of tailings.

“Just the fact that they are able to build these massive tailings facilities is really maddening,” Hardcastle said.

Toxic tailings must be treated forever and that is a long time, Zimmer said.

“It’s not as if acid mine drainage stops in 200 years. It’s not as if it becomes magically non-toxic and what bank account is then going to exist to deal with the problems? It’s almost like having radioactive waste dumps,” he said.

Environment and Climate Change Canada media spokesman Mark Johnson said in an emailed response to questions from DeSmog Canada that depositing of “deleterious substances in waters frequented by fish” requires the proponent to come up with a fish habitat compensation plan.

At the KSM site, compensation for the loss of 10.6 hectares of fish habitat will be creation of 18.2 hectares of fish habitat and relocation of the fish.

“Seabridge has developed a fish salvage strategy to ensure that the fish are relocated to suitable water bodies within the Teigen and Treaty creeks watersheds as well as other mitigation measures to monitor the plan,” Johnson wrote.

Mine owners must test the run-off as it is required “that mine effluent not be acutely lethal to fish,” he said.

Since the regulations came into force in 2002, permission has been given for 27 bodies of fish-bearing water, associated with 12 mines, to be used to store tailings, Johnson said.

“The KSM project will be the 13th mine to have an authorized tailings impoundment area in a fish-frequented water body,” he said.

Seabridge looked at 14 alternatives for managing the tailings of which four were potentially feasible, and the creek plan was assessed as the best, Johnson wrote.

Brent Murphy, Seabridge vice-president of environmental affairs, said there will be no significant downstream effects from using the creeks for tailings.

“And there will absolutely not be any effect on the Nass,” he said.

In addition to the assessment by the federal government there has been a public comment period and extensive consultation with indigenous groups and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Murphy said.

“It’s a very rigorous, step-by-step process. These things are not decided willy-nilly,” he said.

However, others, such as Fred Olsen Jr. of the United Tribal Transboundary Working Group, believe that poisoning lakes and rivers for the sake of the mining industry shows remarkable cynicism.

“This is not the world I was promised,” he said.

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