COMPANY FINED $3.5M FOR 2013 SPILL THAT TAINTED RIVER SYSTEM

A coal mining company has been handed nearly $4.5 million in federal and provincial penalties for a 2013 spill from its tailings pond that fouled tributaries feeding the Athabasca River in Alberta. An estimated 670 million litres of waste water gushed out of a broken earth berm at the Obed Mountain mine near Hinton, Alta., on Oct. 31, 2013. Prairie Mines & Royalty — formerly known as Coal Valley Resources — pleaded guilty Friday in Hinton provincial court to two federal counts of violating the Fisheries Act and another charge under the provincial Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act. The federal charges resulted in $3.5 million in penalties, including $200,000 as a cash fine. About $1.15 million is to be put into a trust to create a fish habitat and recovery research fund and another $2.15 million will go to the Environmental Damages Fund. Prairie Mines was also ordered to pay $925,000 for the provincial conviction.