The tailings pond at Imperial Metals鈥� copper and gold mine in sa国际传媒鈥檚 Cariboo region broke open Monday, allowing 10 million cubic metres of water and 4.5 million cubic metres of toxic waste to spill into Hazeltine Creek and Quesnel Lake, part of the Fraser River watershed.
鈥淧ond鈥� might be a misleading term 鈥� this pond is a four-kilometre-long lake contained by a high earthen wall. It was the breach of that wall that released the flood 鈥� enough to fill 2,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools 鈥� that some are calling sa国际传媒鈥檚 worst environmental disaster. They predict it will devastate much of the region鈥檚 ecosystem, as well as causing severe damage to salmon stocks.
That might be premature. The level of toxins in released water and semi-fluid solids has not been measured. It might not be as bad as some are saying. We hope that is the case.
There鈥檚 no question it is bad. Aerial photos of the area around and downstream from the breached pond look eerily like the devastation left by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. People are without water for drinking and hygiene until the level of toxicity is determined. First Nations and others are concerned about the long-term impact on the environment, particularly the fishery.
Those who are frightened have every reason to be.
Those fears are not allayed by the lukewarm response from the provincial government, which has ordered Imperial Metals to conduct an environmental-impact assessment and submit a cleanup plan.
That鈥檚 closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. Cleaning up the mess will be impossible. How do you remove toxins from water that has flowed many kilometres downstream? How do you remove the toxic sludge that settles to the bottom of streams and lakes, solids that contain arsenic, mercury, sulphur and cyanide to poison the environment for decades.
This is what happens when a province guts its environmental laws and lays off staff dedicated to environmental protection, says Calvin Sandborn, legal director of the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria. This is what happens, he says, when the province is consistently lenient with mining companies when they transgress the meagre regulations that remain.
Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett has leaped to the defence 鈥� of the government and the company, not the people and the environment. He has dismissed claims of concerns and warnings about the safety of the tailings pond, yet the proof is in the pudding, and that pudding is laced with poisons.
Sandborn and his associates have long warned about the consequences of sa国际传媒鈥檚 weak environmental laws and lack of enforcement. He says the province needs to toughen standards for mining development and require resource companies to contribute to a fund that can pay for cleanup and compensate victims, rather than leaving taxpayers with the bill and victims twisting in the wind.
鈥淵ou save a few bucks by firing people, but how much is this going to cost the province?鈥� Sandborn said.
鈥淥ur economy swims by in the river,鈥� said Bev Sellars, chief of the Xatsull First Nation, as she worried about the effects the spill would have on the salmon vital to her people鈥檚 well-being.
Our economy swims by in the river, drifts with ocean and air currents and resides in the soil. Mining, done properly, can be of economic benefit, but it鈥檚 a false economy if it comes at the expense of people and the environment.
