Human waste stored in mine ‘disgusting’
Union wants Mosaic to haul out filth for disposal at Esterhazy site
The organization representing Saskatchewan’s unionized potash miners wants Mosaic Co. to stop storing human excrement underground at one of its mines in the province, and instead follow the example set by other potash operations by hauling it to the surface for disposal.
There is no good reason for the Plymouth, Minn.-based company to continue emptying portable toilets into large underground pits at its Esterhazy mine complex about 190 kilometres east of Regina, said Darrin Kruger, a veteran miner and member of the Saskatoon-based Saskatchewan Potash Council.
“It’s burying human waste in your workplace — it’s disgusting,” Kruger said, adding that, as far as he is aware, none of the other 10 potash mines in Saskatchewan store waste underground.
“They say it’s not a biohazard … (But) why do we need to bury (excrement) in people’s workplaces?”
Mosaic has experimented with different chemicals to treat the pits — which are eight feet deep and about 100 feet long — but foul odours have been a problem for years, according to Perry Bubnick, a 40-year industry veteran who co-chairs Unifor Local 892’s health and safety committee at the Esterhazy mine.
According to a history of the mine’s sewage situation written by Bubnick and provided to Postmedia News, the company’s attempts to seal off the pits occasionally failed, waste was sometimes not covered with ore and “odours were so strong at times it was hard to breathe.” It says repeated complaints to the company were never addressed properly.
“Honestly, I don’t know why they don’t (change) and they should,” Bubnick said in an interview. “The company should respect the workers.”
Mosaic spokeswoman Sarah Fedorchuk said the company began storing human waste underground at the Esterhazy mine in 2008 and hired a toxicologist to study the practice two years later, after employees raised concerns.
Fedorchuk declined to provide a copy of the toxicologist’s report, but said in an interview that it did not reveal hygiene problems.
“(The toxicologist) actually determined … this process is preferable to hoisting it to surface, because when we’re hoisting it to surface there’s a lot more chances for exposure than the way we’re disposing of it now,” Fedorchuk said, noting that all of the mine’s waste disposal pits are “a few kilometres” from work sites.
While Mosaic is in full compliance with the province’s mining regulations, it is open to discussing the issue of waste disposal with its employees even though it’s not mentioned in operational health and safety committee meeting minutes going back “a few years” and has not been brought up in recent underground meetings, Fedorchuk added.
Bubnick said he brought the union committee’s concerns directly to the Saskatchewan government earlier this year.
The province is in the midst of rewriting its mining regulations.
Kruger said changing the rules governing underground mines to bring Esterhazy into line with other operations is a “very high priority” for the Potash Council.
“(Right now) they won’t change because they don’t have to,” he said.
The provincial government started the process of amending the mining regulations in April 2015.
Nine months later, it compiled a list of proposed changes, including one that would require mining firms to haul toilet waste to the surface on a weekly basis, unless an occupational health committee approves a “hygienic” underground storage method.
According to the provincial government, consultations on the regulations concluded last summer and amendments are expected to be announced this year. Government spokeswoman Trelle Kolojay said in an email on Wednesday that further comment is not possible because the regulations have not been finalized.
In a Feb. 22 letter to Ray Anthony, executive director of the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety’s occupational health and safety division, Bubnick described the practice of storing waste underground as “disrespectful,” and said it remains the union’s position that the rule needs to be included in the amended regulations.
“Other mines (including other Mosaic sites) in our province dispose of sewage in a safe, efficient manner by hauling to surface and we believe there is no reason that this cannot be done here. This is an unsafe, unhealthy way to deal with sewage,” Bubnick wrote.
Fedorchuk said Mosaic did a lot of investigation and due diligence to find the best method of waste disposal that limits employees’ exposure to it, and that the mine’s latest inspection by the provincial government did not turn up any problems.
If the regulations are changed, the company will comply with them, she added.