Appeal challenges discharge of effluent into Quesnel Lake
The B.C. Environmental Appeal Board will hear a challenge of a provincial permit that allows Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley mine to discharge mine effluent into Quesnel Lake.
An amended permit was issued by the B.C. Environment Ministry in April 2017 to allow the discharge of mine waste water that has been treated at a filtering plant as part of a long-term water-management plan at the Interior B.C. gold and copper mine. The plan is a requirement of the mine operating after a dam that held back mine effluent in its tailings pond collapsed in August 2014. The earth-and-rock dam has since been rebuilt.
The appeal, launched by Christine McLean, a member of Concerned Citizens of Quesnel Lake, is set for a three-week hearing in Victoria, beginning at the end of January.
The appeal has the support of West Coast Environmental Law and Mining Watch Canada.
“The concern is that we have mine waste water going into a pristine salmon-bearing waterway,” said McLean, a Calgary resident who has a home on Quesnel Lake. “They are continuing to pollute when we don’t know how bad the lake has been injured.”
She said the approval of the discharge permit did not take into consideration the deposit of millions of cubic metres of mine waste into Quesnel Lake because of the dam collapse. She said she is not against the Mount Polley mine, which provides valuable jobs in the area, but said a better technological solution is needed than discharging into the lake.
Asked for comment on the appeal on Tuesday, Imperial Metals officials did not respond.
The company posted a $36.6-million quarterly loss on Monday for the three months ending in June. A conference call Tuesday with analysts did not mention the appeal. The amended permit allows the mine to discharge up to 10 million cubic metres of effluent into the lake annually. That is enough effluent to fill 4,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The treatment plant uses a filter process to reduce levels of elements such as selenium and copper. Samples are taken at the end of the treatment to ensure compliance with permit limits before the water is discharged. B.C. Ministry of Environment officials couldn’t immediately say Tuesday what were the results of testing.
The discharge is piped into Quesnel Lake at a depth of 45 metres, and 250 metres from shore.
Twenty-year Quesnel Lake resident Doug Watt said he has continuing concerns following the dam collapse four years ago, noting that residents’ water filters plug up faster than they have in the past, and the water feels “slimy.”
Although testing shows Quesnel Lake water meets drinking-water guidelines, and other residents do drink the water, Watt does not.
He also noted that there continues to be sediment kicked up in the water from the spill in the fall and in the spring, something borne out by research at the University of B.C.
One of the largest mining-dam failures in the world in the past 50 years, the Aug. 4, 2014 dam collapse shook the industry and caused concern among the public, First Nations and environmental groups that aquatic life would be harmed, particularly salmon that use the Quesnel Lake system to spawn.
The dam failure not only spilled millions of cubic metres of mine effluent and tailings into Quesnel Lake, but also scoured nine kilometres of Hazeltine Creek, where trout and coho salmon spawned.
Imperial Metals has spent millions of dollars to rehabilitate Hazeltine Creek. The tailings dumped into Quesnel Lake remain at the bottom of the lake. Studies on the effect of the spill are expected to continue for years.