Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Environmental disaster in central BC...

Agree 100%..

Gentlemen;
Top of the morning to you both, I hope this finds your respective families doing OK.

I'll have to agree with my friend Okanagan on this issue - and sometime over coffee on our back deck I'll tell him a bit more about my family's connection with that very mine and Imperial Metals.

There needs to be environmental controls and some semblance of balance between what has/is taking place and no extraction of any natural resources.

We've seen a lot of improvement over the years in forestry in my part of the Okanagan, at least as far as timely replanting is concerned. I'd still like to see some of the size of the blocks reduced, but that's another topic.

Anyway, maybe this will push the pendulum back the other way a wee bit - for both government and the enviros too. One can always hope so, right?

All the best to you both in the upcoming fall seasons.

Dwayne

Dwayne, this chit breaks my heart and pisses me off at the same time. My dad has been gold mining in Nevada for Newmont and other companies for many many years (since '81). I've been around these tailing ponds and leach fields and know this will have an enormous effect on the ecosystem in Canada. My heart and prayers go out to the people being affected by this disaster.

I'm stepping on a couple of friends toes now, but mining has decimated Nevada, and it will continue this way for at least another 100 years if the Canadian, British, Australian, and other foreign mining corporations have their way, which they will. They have big money, own big politicians and little, and they will kill to have it their way.

This is standard practice for the industry, both metals and coal. And to a large degree big pork and poultry operations. While in operation, they 'lagoon' the waste products. When the dam breaks, sometimes a petty enviro fine is paid and sometimes not. The lagoon is repaired and it's business as usual. The most cursory review of mining's history in the United States illustrates this. The other prime strategy of this industry is to pretend to stay open forever so 'closure' requirements do not have to be met. By the time the issue is litigated, insiders have taken the money and run.

Most decent people imagine these industries operate with a "Boy Scout" ideology that says to "leave the campsite like you found it or a little better". They imagine that our current environmental regulations assure this. Nothing could be further from the truth. They operate with a "Why does a dog lick his balls?" ideology. Because in the end, cleaning up these operations usually does not happen. If it does the cost is spread over the tax base. Why does this sound like a liberal rant? The best PR money can buy, that's why. I've been a professional environmental manager for the past 25 years, on both sides of the country. As of this writing also a registered Republican. I urge a dose of honest review of the topic before dumping my point into the whacko bin.

Seems there must be something to salvage there, probably the other mine they want to start up, CNRL chairman just put up a bunch of money thru an investment fund;
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...on-to-clean-up-bc-spill/article20074754/

The Tsolum River on Vancouver Island has been poisoned for over 40 years due to an abandoned copper mine on Mt. Washington. The leachate from the mine decimated pink, coho and cutthroat trout runs, almost to extinction. Environment Canada, Fisheries and Oceans, BC Ministry of Environment, Pacific Salmon Foundation and the Tsolum River Restoration Society spent millions of taxpayer dollars trying to remedy the problem. Blaming environmentalists for this situation is as laughable as Christy Clark telling us she is helping the taxpayers by cuts to environmental enforcement.

No matter how I look at this, it is a for profit made disaster. It is incumbent upon the entity that elects to exploit the resource to preserve the long term value of the eco system.

What is the monetary value of the lost food production and fresh water supply as a result of this man made pollution? What is the lost value of recreation, life style and culture for the people that rely on this watershed.

I would argue that root cause responsibility falls with the mineral exploiter and government oversight.

The same sort of sad history has been repeated here in Montana for well over a century. While I am not a big fan of many tactics of environmentalists, it is another historical fact that such pollution problems have been reduced (though not eliminated) over the past few decades, largely through new and more powerful environmental protection laws.

Mining is about profit, and profit is good. (I am a pretty pure capitalist, since I make my living purely by selling my work to various companies, with no government subsidies involved.) But sometimes mining profits result in the rest of us paying for 'em, and not just with money.

This is "Kutenay", posting from my wife's new laptop after several months away due to serious health issues=I don'tknow if or when/what I may post further on this site, but' after more a half century of committed environmentalism, I must comment on this and some of the posts above.

This, latest of the many eco-disasters which have sullied BC/Canada's historical evolution from "The Viking Era" to the present, IS NOT, in ANY respect, a "fault" of environmentalists.

It IS the inevitable consequence of "neo-con" governments who refuse to fund the necessary government management agencies so that they can properly regulate the various resource industries in this dying nation

This, is analogous to the appalling mismanagement of BC's wildlife and the declining numbers of game species.....Kootenay Moose are one example among all too many.........

Good to see you post, and hope you do more. Best wishes Kute.

As a long serving senior leader in the resource industry sector, an avid outdoorsman and like most avid outdoorsman an environmentalist I'll offer my perspective on this event.

First off, it is a disaster. The only thing in BC that is worse than this was the decision by the BC Government in the mid late 90's to let the latest Pine Beetle infestation "run a natural course" under advice from a Dr. David Suzuki. For our friends south of the 49th who don't know him Dr Suzuki is a rather extreme left wing environmentalist. This decision by the then left wing NDP government will have far reaching consequences for generations to come in this corner of North America. So it is a disaster, but not the worst.

Watching the media up here...it is almost as if they want it to be worse than it is. Some factual details are glossed over or missed while others are presented in a way that infers something other than the facts. Until very recently I lived in the area, am very familiar with the mine site, the entire watershed to the Fraser involved in this event, and have hunted and fished in the area for the last decade.

My understanding of the event.

There was a catastrophic failure of the tailings dam.

It was not overloaded.

There is some question about how it was built when the site reopened about 10 years ago. The contractor apparently did not put enough of the right kind of material in the area where the failure occurred. A fair amount of fingerpointing behind the scenes over this right now. He blames the company. Company blames him. etc, etc, I suspect it will turn out to be a combination of the two. If there was negligence here the guilty parties need to be held to the full account of the law.

The water of Quesnel Lake is fine. The water of Polley Lake has been affected but it is potable and the fish are fine.

One of the guys I hunt with has been a millwright there since it reopened. I jut had dinner with him last night as he came to town to see a doctor. He was looking out over Polley Lake Tuesday afternoon watching a hatch get fed on.

Due to the fact that the tailings pond's contents met or was under all guidelines there has been minimal impact on the water.

There is a heck of a mess out of Hazeltine Creek. It will be cleaned up.

At this point it does not appear that the watershed will be materially impacted at all.

Why do I read this different. The company identifies a problem and requires a permit to remidy. PERMIT HELD BACK BY SKY IS FALLING CHICKEN LITTLE TYPES. Dam failes 5 years after no progress in resolution.

[quote=tangozulu]Why do I read this different. The company identifies a problem and requires a permit to remidy. PERMIT HELD BACK BY SKY IS FALLING CHICKEN LITTLE TYPES. Dam failes 5 years after no progress in resolution.

I'm sure this is the problem

Hi Kute
Good to see you on here, have missed you. I have kept in touch with friend in Alberta, still seems to be no resolve on the missing lady. Cheers NC

Great to have you back - someone who knows and who isn't afraid to say it.

Moreover, Kute, I wish you good health.