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A breach at Imperial Metals’ (TSX:III) Mount Polley Mine tailings pond in Canada’s British Columbia is giving groups fighting Northeastern Minnesota copper mines some ammunition.
The pond, which stores toxic waste from the copper and gold mine, had its dam break on Monday, releasing 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 of central B.C.
Minnesota-based Mining Truth said yesterday the company that designed, engineered, and oversaw the construction of the Mount Polley tailings dam — Knight Piesold — also provided local authorities with input on the current proposal for the proposed PolyMet copper mine project near Hoyt Lakes.
Two Knight Piesold employees are listed in the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement as contributors. And, in a 2013 corporate overview, PolyMet officials described the relationship as “the State of Minnesota has engaged Environmental Resource Management and Knight Piesold to assist in the completion of the EIS.”
Documents from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, however, show that Knight Piesold only reviewed an environmental impact statement for the PolyMet project, but didn’t provide any design services.
Currently the area affected by the mine tailings spill is under a state of local emergency, with population asked to refrain from drinking or using tap water. Tests on the water are expected to be released today.
Imperial Metals has been ordered to take immediate action to stop the further release of mine tailings into nearby waterways and to submit environmental impact assessments and clean-up action plans to B.C’s ministry of energy and mines. If the firm does not comply, it could face fines of up to $1 million.
Images from Cariboo Regional District’s YouTube Channel.
19 Comments
Quesnel Lake
$1 million is a joke. Throw the book at them. This makes the whole mining industry look terrible.
Shaun
It is my understanding that the $1 million fine will be implemented if they do not come up with an immediate plan for containment and proposal for the clean up. The actual costs of cleaning up the spill will most likely be in the tens of millions; and It will probably take months if not years of investigating to determine if there was criminal negligence or not. Definitely an unfortunate incident for BC, area residents, and the mining community.
barey
million dollars, such a deal
fred quimby
simple, should have been a bi pass for excess water, duh
Marc Zimmer
Pretty much this.
onemansopinion
Dams under construction would not have a spillway. They just ensure extra freeboard while under construction. Only when the facility is complete will they install a spillway.
fred quimby
I am in love with environmentalists, they buy so many cell phones, tv, computers, electricity, cars, I love it, they use my product and keep me going strong…
Guest
Just read the story lead on this article. Environmentalists will have a field day with this on ALL resource developments in North America.
And yet no press releases on the Ontario Mining Association and the Mining Association of Canada websites responding to this tragedy.
The industry does a lousy job of defending itself.
Ian Bruce
Not a crime BUT
Criminal negligence??
fred quimby
same thing happened in Mt. St. Helens, and its is ok now, so dont work so much, and I doubt there was toxic waste in the pond, probably was a lie, and I found out that salmon love sand to lay eggs in, when there is drought they stay at sea and then muddy water triggers their brain to come up stream and they look for the smell of that home they left. In Oregon the US Forestry changed the smell of the stream by blocking old mines that dumped mine water in the stream, and most of the Salmon have never returned. So calamity howlers, get busy and get it over with.
golddigger69
This is such a complex disaster, we should all take a big deep breath and relax.
First of all this shows that the relationships between regulators and operators is badly broken. The operator was asking to discharge water from the facility, but it appears that was rejected by the regulators (worried about putting their behind on the line–who knows at this point). The former head of oversight for the dam is quoted as saying it was going to fail, just when and who he spoke to is still a bit unknown.
But beyond this, we in the industry must work with regulators to design facilities that will not fail–after all these thing will be around for a lot longer (hopefully) than the mine itself. Placing tailings in gravitationally unstable situations is a foolish means to store them. A quick look shows many small lakes around the mine that could have been used to place the tails in a gravitationally stable location that offers the additional benefit to keeping potentially toxic material separate from oxygen that converts them into toxic material (e.g. pyrite, non-toxic as such, pyrite + O2 = sulphuric acid–toxic!).
It appears to me there is enough blame to go around. I hope the learning curve on this one is followed by many, without the knee jerk reactions to claim a quick fix.
fred quimby
I suppose the mine will be charged for all the trees and brush that was there before…Listen all you ones worked up over this, the government makes the specs for all damns, all settling ponds, yes, my little dear howler, the government agencies are the ones who design all dams…..oh oh who is responsible????
djfanon
“In a statement released Friday, a representative from consulting
engineers Knight Piesold’s Vancouver office said the firm ceased its
involvement with the Mount Polley tailings facility in February 2011,
and that changes made to its design and engineering since then mean “it
can no longer be considered a Knight Piesold Ltd. design.”
“Those duties were handed to AMEC Earth and Environmental in March of 2011.”
http://www.vancouversun.com/Firm+that+designed+original+Mount+Polley+tailings+says+warned+growing+size/10102799/story.html#ixzz39sr7VDu1
It appears the government does NOT make the specs for these facilities. They are farmed out to consulting engineering firms.
Mike Failla
Appears to me water recovery was the problem, too much water not enough solids so erosion took place and snuck under to containment area and washed it out. .Notice how now the rest of industry in Canada and u s wil be tarred with the same brush. Notice the title?
Wally
This is indeed a disaster, mining, environmental in fact every which way you look at it.
As you might expect many people have put forward their point of view and offered an insight into perhaps the why.
In my opinion, the main issue which needs to be dealt with here is that (if the lay person is to believe the generally held point of view at this time) at least one person had evidence of a likely failure, and or suspected that a failure of the dam was at least a possibility.
If this is so, we need to ask the question, what would motivate someone to contribute knowingly to this situation, we need to ensure that such people are not put in such a position as to be able to endanger themselves, future prospects of mining or the communities whose health and prosperity depends on them.
john S. metzger
The opportunity exists to bridge the sector to local communities/regulators .. and that is through monitoring from ground based (affordable IBIS-FM type) and possibly satellite InSAR instruments. All are available off the shelf today, deploy, put in coordinates, monitor .. then you can have data from which to make “better” decisions as needed.
Steven
Fines up to $1 Million? That’s chump change for these SOBs. It ought to start at $1 Billion and move upwards from there.
concerned
A measly $1M fine for probably killing hundreds of thousands of animals: bears, wolves, deer, moose, beavers, eagles, salmon, trout, etc etc and of course endangering humans.
But humans, with effort, can pick up and move to another city, they can buy
non-toxic food from the grocery store. Animals have no choice but to eat off
the land around them.
This damage is unacceptable.
And unacceptable that the damage occurred in the first place. Someone at
Imperial knew, or neglectfully didn’t check that, that the tailing dam was
filling too much. This was complete human negligence. Those individuals should be heavily fined and go to jail for life. Including any government individuals
responsible for this chain of events.
We are not even talking about an earthquake here.
I can’t even put a benign 1-car garage on my property without needing a lengthy city permit. How can the government allow contracted engineering firms to ‘monitor’ (if that even was happening) these toxic dams, that potentially can kill millions of animal life and human life??
As well, the law is extremely flawed and unbalanced in Canada.
Canada recently made an anti-spam law about sending out unverified emails, with a potential maximum fine of $10 M – this maximum fine is probably for disturbing
hundreds of company computers with a computer virus. Disturbing the employees
week, to get the virus out and under control. Big f’g deal!
And in comparison, killing hundreds of thousands of animals: bears, wolves,
deer, moose, beavers, eagles, salmon, trout, etc etc
The animals going thru a slow, confusing and painful death with no medical care and no help.
Losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate losses.
Probably 100 years or 5200 weeks of rehabilitation is needed for the environment to come back.
Months and months of direct disturbances to the people living in the affected area who will likely have to move. Years of emotional disturbances to the people due to
the land and homes they need to abandon.
Or alternatively stay there with years of stress and anxiety about whether they are going to get poisoned or get cancer or their unborn child is going to be deformed etc etc.
This tragedy in comparison is only worth a maximum of $1M f’g dollars ?!?!
This is unacceptable.
The law needs to change. Mining company employees, government
officials, and engineering firm employees, need to have heavy fines and jail
terms for this kind of negligence. Human negligence with such potential disaster is unacceptable.
concerned
A measly $1M fine
for probably killing hundreds of thousands of animals: bears, wolves, deer,
moose, beavers, eagles, salmon, trout, etc etc and of course endangering
humans.
But humans, with effort, can pick up and move to another city, they can buy
non-toxic food from the grocery store. Animals have no choice but to eat off
the land around them.
This damage is unacceptable.
And unacceptable that the damage occurred in the first place. Someone at
Imperial knew, or neglectfully didn’t check that, that the tailing dam was
filling too much. This was complete human negligence. Those individuals should
be heavily fined and go to jail for life. Including any government individuals
responsible for this chain of events.
We are not even talking about an earthquake here.
I can’t even put a benign 1-car garage on my property without needing a lengthy
city permit. How can the government allow contracted engineering firms to
‘monitor’ (if that even was happening) these toxic dams, that potentially can
kill millions of animal life and human life??
As well, the law is extremely flawed and unbalanced in Canada.
Canada
recently made an anti-spam law about sending out unverified emails, with a
potential maximum fine of $10 M – this maximum fine is probably for disturbing
hundreds of company computers with a computer virus. Disturbing the employees
week, to get the virus out and under control. Big f’g deal!
And in comparison, killing hundreds of thousands of animals: bears, wolves,
deer, moose, beavers, eagles, salmon, trout, etc etc
The animals going thru a slow, confusing and painful death with no medical care
and no help.
Losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate losses.
Probably 100 years or 5200 weeks of rehabilitation is needed for the environment
to come back.
Months and months of direct disturbances to the people living in the affected
area who will likely have to move. Years of emotional disturbances to the
people due to
the land and homes they need to abandon.
Or alternatively stay there with years of stress and anxiety about whether they
are going to get poisoned or get cancer or their unborn child is going to be
deformed etc etc.
This tragedy in comparison is only worth a maximum of $1M f’g dollars ?!?!
This is unacceptable.
The law needs to change. Mining company employees, government
officials, and engineering firm employees, need to have heavy fines and jail
terms for this kind of negligence. Human negligence with such
potential disaster is unacceptable.