Editor:
Imperial Metals Corp. is ramping up the Mount Polley Mine (MPMC) operations.
Good news for jobs and economic growth, but what a cost: continued pollution of once pristine Quesnel Lake (QL) with up to 10,000,000 cubic metres per year of untreated effluent according to the mine’s notice from March 3, 2022.
The Aug. 4, 2014 tailings dam collapse dumped over 25,000,000 cubic metres of tailings and wastewater into Hazeltine Creek, Polley Lake and Quesnel Lake. The B.C. Ministry of Environment (MoE) in 2017 issued an amended operating permit that allowed MPMC to dilute the mine’s contaminated effluent, which are hundreds to a 1,000 times higher than the natural background levels. The permit authorized an “interim” discharge until December 31, 2022.
MPMC is now requesting a minimum three-year extension, which if approved will likely extend into decades more pollution as the mine’s operating life is increased.
The 2017 permit, and the many subsequent amendments requested by MPMC required that the mine “must operate and optimize the performance of the Veolia Actiflo Water Treatment Plant (WTP) to remove contaminants” and “must review discharge alternatives for direct discharge.”
Why is MoE so accommodating to the mine while letting the environment be degraded and used for the mine’s convenience?
Despite the many permit compliance issues and exceedance events that MPMC has accumulated since 2017, MoE still has not written or enforced a permit that would truly protect Quesnel Lake from MPMC pollution. It is likely that MPMC will get a three- year “interim” discharge extension, but it is imperative that the new permit contain solid and immediately enforceable milestones, including that the mine must complete comprehensive, wide ranging and unbiased BAT and options assessments, research and process development. At the end of that three-year period, there must be viable and effective water treatment plans in place that will not require dilution as the solution.
To steal a phrase from the Oct 8, 2021 letter from Don Parsons of Imperial Metals Corp., “we will need workable and appropriate permits to be in place” to protect Quesnel Lake from continued mine pollution.
For further information on protecting the waters of Quesnel Lake, check out the Concerned Citizens of Quesnel Lake (CCQL) at their website (https://www.ccql.ca) and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/people/CCof-Quesnel-Lake/100014339648706/ ).
Doug Watt
Likely, B.C.