Still no justice after Mt. Polley

Last week marked another anniversary since Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley mine disaster happened. On Aug. 4, 2014, the catastrophic tailings dam failure dumped 25 billion litres of mine waste into the once pristine Quesnel Lake, Polley Lake and Hazeltine Creek, carving a destructive path over nine kilometres long. Since then, there have been no fines, no charges and no penalties against the company for this disaster.

For four years, residents and other British Columbians have been awestruck by the injustice of it all.

Many people have cited how fines for smaller infractions, like an individual accidentally spilling a litre of motor oil, are higher than what Imperial Metals has faced. The deadline for pressing charges by the province came and went at the three-year anniversary. There is just a year left for charges under the federal Fisheries Act, if they come at all.

Imperial Metals has received permits instead of penalties since the disaster. The most egregious being a long-term water discharge permit which allows it to dump waste water directly into what had been the pristine Quesnel Lake before Mount Polley’s toxic tailings were disposed into it. Community members almost unanimously opposed the discharge permit.

We also found out recently that the B.C. government is about to approve yet another amendment to the discharge permit and it’s not likely one that is going to favour the lake or satisfy the residents that are opposed.

Many residents refuse to fish given unknown impacts to the salmon that had just made their way back to spawn. While Imperial Metals president Brian Kynoch declared after the spill that he would drink the water, no one’s seen him do it and many residents still refuse to drink water out of Quesnel Lake where a mass of tailings waste remains.

Meanwhile, the situation for the company seems more precarious. This week, the stock value for Imperial Metals was listed at just over a dollar (119 pennies to be exact). Ironically, the penny is a retired coin that used to be made almost entirely of copper, like the ore they are extracting from Mount Polley, Red Chris and formerly from Huckleberry, the mines they own.

We know that the B.C. government has not gathered the total estimated reclamation costs for the three mines Imperial Metals owns and operates. Lacking full bonding requirements, British Columbia faces over a billion dollars in mining closure liabilities as per the Auditor General report in 2016.

As children we’re taught to clean up our mess.

Mining companies seem to get away without doing so under British Columbia’s weak mining laws and policies on reclamation funding and enforcement.

Imagine if we had a mining industry in British Columbia that ensured the polluter actually paid? One that guaranteed that if you were going to operate a mine, you would need to prove your company was financially sound enough to ensure you could clean up your mess before you started making one?

Another penny for your thoughts: imagine if our laws actually held companies to account for disasters and compensated impacted communities?

After the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska and Lac Megantic’s rail disaster in Quebec, actions were immediately taken to remedy rules and regulations, and to create an industry fund to cover compensation and ensure taxpayers are safeguarded from the costs of disasters. Nothing similar has been set up since Mount Polley.

Obviously none of us want another Mount Polley disaster. As the Independent Panel report stated, there will be two failures every decade if we continue with “business as usual.”

While a few changes have unfolded, more needs to be done to reduce the risks that led to Mount Polley, whether refusing to permit the same type of tailings storage facilities, changing the Professional Reliance model, mandating full reclamation bonds, or establishing a mining disaster fund.

When it comes to Mount Polley, it’s time the penny dropped.

Justice must be served for the disaster, compensation (and long-term studies) delivered to communities and mining reform undertaken.