Another Canadian Toxic Spill reported

[Bob]

Tailing pod breaks spilling toxic wastes in to river.

Source (http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/environment-and-safety/tailings-pond-breach-sends-toxic-surge-b-c-river-139516/?utm_source=CTECH&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CTECH-EN08062014&e=1v1M3s0q27W6x08yM2vx)

QUESNEL, B.C.—Authorities say the equivalent of 2,000 Olympic swimming pools of mining waste has been discharged into waterways in British Columbia’s Cariboo region, forcing hundreds to stop using water in the area.

The tailings pond of the Mount Polley mine, about 140 kilometres southeast of Quesnel in northern B.C., was breached early Monday, forcing a water-use ban.

Letting loose highly toxic copper wastes is highly toxic to humans and fish.

The advisory was expanded to include residents along the nearby Quesnel and Cariboo Rivers.

The Quesnel River is linked to the Fraser River, one of B.C.’s main arteries, but authorities have not imposed a water-use ban on communities by the Fraser, saying it is unclear if contaminants have gone that far.

Mount Polley is an open pit copper and gold mine owned by the Imperial Metals Corporation.

Imperial Metals has been fined for previous violations.


http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/mount_polley_mine_aug2014.jpg

A view of one of the Imperial Mine's tailings ponds (Mt Polley)


http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/mount_polley_tailings_screenshot_sug2014.jpg

[Snookie]

What a $hit show.

They were warned 3 years ago to do something about the tailing pond, as it wasn't secure. Why did the government do NOTHING? They should have been severely fined each month that nothing was done. Just more proof these big corporations have the government in their back pocket!

[joeecho]

I do not live in the area effected nor Canada for that matter but this looks outright preventable. It is upsetting to see these preventable environmental catastrophes happening far too often. Where is the accountability?

[Bob]

I do not live in the area effected nor Canada for that matter but this looks outright preventable. It is upsetting to see these preventable environmental catastrophes happening far too often. Where is the accountability?

There are some major issues with mining companies worldwide. Canada has been having spill problems from some mines who are flagrant violators.. And some issues with Nuclear energy waste dumps also being present (or proposed) near water tables, some which could affect not only Canada's water sources, but the US as well.

Corporate greed? Or just sloppy management, not carrying whom they harm?

UPDATE: BC orders Imperial to PLUG THAT HOLE NOW.. Imperial Metals could face $1M fine or else. BC not happy with this sloppy mess. 7 Aug 14

[Bob]

Update on the spill - The breach released 10 million cubic metres of water and 4.5 million cubic metres of toxic silt into Polley Lake and Quesnel Lake.

Source (http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/regulation/tailings-breach-investigation-finds-previous-warnings-leak-139567/?utm_source=CMO&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CMO-EN08062014&e=1v1M3s0q27W6x08yM2vx)

A ban remains in place on all consumption or recreational use of the Quesnel and Cariboo river systems from the spill site to the Fraser River, several hundred kilometres away.

What happened was an earthen dam broke, releasing the toxins into the river systems.

A summary of material dumped into the tailings pond last year was filed with Environment Canada. It said there was 326 tonnes of nickel, over 400,000 kilograms of arsenic, 177,000 kilograms of lead and 18,400 tonnes of copper and its compounds placed in the pond last year. Each of those substances pose a serious health risk and are quite toxic.

The Mining company had been warned of potential problems, Kynoch said the dam had never before failed. Levels in the tailings pond were too high and there was some overflow into the creek in May, he said. He is the president of Imperial Metals, the mining company responsible.

Meanwhile in other pollution related matters affecting water,

Oilsands tailings contaminants have been found in groundwater, in a river in Alberta Canada.

New federal research has confirmed that water from vast oilsands tailings ponds is leaching into groundwater and seeping into Alberta’s Athabasca River.

The leakage is estimated at 6.5 million litres a day from a single pond. Substances found in tailings usually consist of the raw oil and the solvents used to extract it.

It’s also found in groundwater just underneath the Athabasca River, meaning it is sinking into the water-table.

Source (http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/environment-and-safety/oilsands-tailings-found-in-groundwater-river-in-alberta-study-finds-133399/)

[DeDukshyn]

Blast ... Quesnel lake is a huge lake - the biggest in the area by a long shot. I used to live in the Cariboo in BC (and have visited Quesnel lake in my youth) -- born and raised there actually. It is so sad to see this; the land in the Cariboo is quite pristine, a vast lake network of clean lakes with great fishing, camping, and a ton of small resorts.

Completely unacceptable, the company responsible should be fined out of business.

[joeecho]

Blast ... Quesnel lake is a huge lake - the biggest in the area by a long shot. I used to live in the Cariboo in BC (and have visited Quesnel lake in my youth) -- born and raised there actually. It is so sad to see this; the land in the Cariboo is quite pristine, a vast lake network of clean lakes with great fishing, camping, and a ton of small resorts.

Completely unacceptable, the company responsible should be fined out of business.

Reviewing info of the area, it does look like a wonderful place to live or visit. A true shame what has happened and it appears appropriate that those responsible be HELD responsible and lose their shirts over this. The protection of the environment has to be taken more serious then it is at current levels.

Of course if depopulation is the larger agenda then nothing will change and simply get worse.

[Sidney]

Feels like some deliberate negligence to me. Poor Poor GAIA So very sad.

[DeDukshyn]

Feels like some deliberate negligence to me. Poor Poor GAIA So very sad.

I doubt deliberate, but at the very least completely negligent.

[Bob]

Spill update - Bill Bennett, B.C's minister of energy and mines, says Imperial Metals will have to acknowledge and pay for any mistakes that led to the massive breach earlier this week of the tailings pond at its mine in central B.C.

The breach of the tailings pond dam at the copper and gold mine near Likely, B.C., released 10 billion litres of water and 4.5 million cubic metres of metals-laden fine sand, contaminating several lakes, creeks and rivers in the Cariboo region on Monday.


http://i.cbc.ca/1.2729176.1407346196!/cpImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/original_620/tailings-pond-breach-20140805.jpg

State of emergency declared

A local state of emergency was declared in the Cariboo Regional District on Wednesday, roughly 48 hours after the Mount Polley Mine's tailings pond wall gave way​.

The force of the breach scoured away the banks of Hazeltine Creek and sent debris flowing into Quesnel Lake and Polley Lake, which rose 1.5 metres.

B.C. Ministry of Energy and Mines to update situation on Mount Polley spill at 3pm PT today.

Drinking water and water-use ban remains in place on all consumption or recreational use of the Quesnel and Cariboo river systems from the spill site to the Fraser River, several hundred kilometres away.

The Sockeye Salmon run is threatened.

Source (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/mount-polley-mine-tailings-spill-imperial-metals-could-face-1m-fine-1.2728832)


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[Bob]

Canada is saying this is a disaster

Huge amounts of material is actively flowing out of the tailings facility in great, muddy torrents into Hazeltine Creek. Have you ever seen a waterfall of mine tailings? It’s here in this video, in the middle of Hazeltine Creek — a formerly 1-metre wide trickle of wending water that is now a scoured-out 45 metres wide.

The complete failure of the tailings dam at Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley copper-gold mine in central BC’s Cariboo region on Aug. 4 is the most depressing thing to have happened in Canadian mining since the Bre-X Minerals debacle in 1997. It’s the worst tailings dam failure tied to a Canadian company since the Los Frailes disaster in Spain in 1998 (5 million cubic metres spilled) and the Omai spill in Guyana in 1995 (2.3 million cubic metres spilled). It’s about as big a tailings dam failure as you can get: some 15 million cubic metres of tailings muck has so far flowed out of the mine’s tailings impoundment area through a gaping hole in an obliterated eastern portion of a huge dam wall.

To see the jaw-dropping scale of the devastation, watch the full video of a helicopter survey of the affected area at http://youtu.be/M1YgX2jXnpA, posted by the Cariboo Regional District authority. The video takes 37 minutes, because the affected area is so huge: the massive tailings facility itself, Polley Lake immediately to the east and the deeply messed-up Hazeltine Creek, which empties into the western reaches of the formerly pristine Quesnel Lake, where there are critical salmon spawning grounds.


M1YgX2jXnpA

Mount Polley had been on track to produce:


47,000 oz. gold,
44 million lb. copper and
120,000 oz. silver this year


Now it is now closed, and will likely remain so for at least the rest of the year. The mine cannot reopen until the current tailings facility is completely rebuilt or a new one is created next door. Considering that the mine was already running out of space to put its tailings, and there are no obvious quick fixes, the mine will not reopen anytime soon. The mine was slated to close in 2016, but Imperial had been working this year to extend the mine’s life to 2023 by going underground.

Imperial says this — they are representing the very best in Canadian mining — and all they could come up was this on the day of the disaster: "The cause of the breach is unknown at this time. The dam . . . operated within design limits and specifications. Monitoring instruments and on-site personnel had no indication of an impending breach."

In other words, "We ain’t got a clue, folks." (Sorry about that)..

But BC says, that isn't good enough.

[DeDukshyn]

Things seem to be looking up a bit, the water testing came back better than expected.