Five months after the Mount Polley Mine tailings impoundment breach last August, Quesnel Lake residents continue to drink bottled water supplied by the mine.
“We’re not used to living out of jugs and water bottles,” said Skeed Brokowski who along with his wife operates Northern Lights Fishing Lodge on Quesnel Lake.
Before the breach they routinely sent water samples to Interior Health for their business.
“We always got our drinking water from the lake and never had a problem,” Brokowski said.
During a recent visit to Vancouver, he noticed he was actually opening his mouth while having a shower.
“We’re tight-lipped when we’re in the shower here because you just don’t know,” he said.
Looking out onto the lake from his home Thursday morning, Brokowski said he thought the lake did look a little better, but that it will take generations for it to return to normal.
“We used to be able to see 37 feet and four inches down into the lake, now we can see about two feet,” he said. “When MLA Donna Barnett says everything is still beautiful out here, it is but the difference is when you look at the lake and Quesnel River, now it’s pea-soup green.”
He said he wants the mine to restart.
Aside from running the fishing lodge for 46 years, the Brokowskis have made a living mining and logging.
“We’re not angry with the mine employees. Mount Polley has done everything they can possibly do, but this thing is big and that stuff is going to be in there forever. We’re really angry at government.”
Originally Mount Polley Mine had paid for water filters, but filters couldn’t filter out the suspended particles.
“The average human hair is 15 microns and the suspended particles are five microns,” said Mount Polley Mine vice-president of corporate affairs Steve Robertson. “We tried a number of filters but just couldn’t find an effective filtering system that would get those really fine particles out that was practical.”
Some of the filters that did work eventually plugged up in two days, he added.
“We’ve known this for a while so that’s why we’ve continued with our delivery of clean drinking water and will continue with that system.”
The company is also continuing to put the pre-filters on people’s homes for household water use.
Brokowski said three weeks before the breach they put their lodge on the market.
Three interested parties — two from Europe and one from Texas — contacted them.
“After the breach they couldn’t run away fast enough,” Brokowski said.
“That’s life, but it happens to be our life. Our property assessment has gone up considerably too and we cannot even afford to pay the taxes.”
According BC Assessment, the total assessed value for the 355 waterfront properties located on Quesnel Lake is $67,706,601.