During the week of March 11 to 17, a satellite dike within the breach repair area of the Mount Polley Tailings Storage Facility experienced a failure.
“At the satellite dike we built inside the breach repair, water flowed from there down into the breach repair area,” confirmed Imperial Metals vice-president of corporate affairs Steve Robertson during a phone interview Tuesday. “It was an unplanned event and was not something that we were planning but all the water was fully contained.”
Robertson said there was no water released to the environment.
“We were able to successfully capture the water and handle it.”
All water continues to be piped to the Springer Pit via the central collection sump and so far, the system has been able to contain melting snowpack, the company noted in its latest update.