UK’s new coal mine sent ‘adverse international signal’, campaigners say
Environmental campaigners are challenging the approval of a coking coal mine in northwest England.
An environmental advocacy group has launched a lawsuit against British Columbia’s Ministry of Energy and Mines and Texada Quarries, challenging the legality of the ministry’s recent approval of a coal export expansion on Texada Island.
Voters Taking Action Against Climate Change (VTACC) is opposed to the move to increase coal transfers at the facility, as well as an application by Surrey terminal Fraser Surrey Docks to handle thermal coal shipped by rail from the United States.
On April 22, the Ministry of Energy and Mines approved Lafarge’s application to expand coal storage at its Texada Quarrying location from 150,000 tonnes to 800,000 tonnes.
David Gordon, a member of VTACC, said his organization and some Texada residents are frustrated with the lack of response from B.C.’s Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Energy and Mines.
The lawsuit questions whether the Texada expansion application should have been regulated by provincial environmental legislation instead of by the Mines Act, and that a waste discharge permit is required before the project can proceed. It also claims that information about how run-off from the site will be managed should have been shared with the public.
If the lawsuit is successful, VTACC says, the existing permit would be set aside and the Environmental Management Act would be applied to the project.
VTACC has taken photos, and sent samples for analysis, of what they say is contamination from coal handling. Gordon said his group doesn’t believe the testing the ministry has done is adequate.
“We brought the coal contamination with photographs to their attention, the ministry’s response was, well that’s was shading on the photographs,” Gordon said.
Surrey Fraser Docks currently has applied to handle 4 million tonnes of coal, with a possible increase to 8 million tonnes, at its facility on the banks of the Fraser River. That coal would then be barged to Texada Island and transferred to ships.
“It appears to us that the handling is where so much of the coal is ending up in the water … The coal that is coming up from Wyoming to be handled by Fraser Surrey Docks is a much more dusty coal that what is handled there now,” Gordon said.
By Jen St. Denis
