Tag Archives: Mount Polley Mine
Still No Charges for the Company Behind Canada’s Largest Mining Spill
The company responsible for the Mount Polley mine spill—one of the largest environmental disasters in Canadian history—has found out it’s not going to face any charges in British Columbia. The news likely has billionaire Murray Edwards, owner of Imperial Metals and the Mount Polley mine (and the Calgary Flames) toasting with his rich friends in London (where he lives to avoid paying taxes). If you’re not in BC, there’s a chance the aerial images of the disaster haven’t already scarred you forever. This is what the collapsed tailings pond at the Mount Polley mine looked like in August 2014. >click to read< 16:55
A Canadian Threat to Alaskan Fishing
Carpeted in rain forest and braided with waterways, southeast Alaska is among the largest wild salmon producers in the world, its tourism and salmon fishing industries grossing about $2 billion a year. But today, the rivers and the salmon that create these jobs — and this particular way of life, which attracted me from Philadelphia to Sitka almost 20 years ago — are threatened by Canada’s growing mining industry along the mountainous Alaska-British Columbia border, about a hundred miles east of where I now write. Read the article here 16:27
OPINION: British Columbia: Your neighbors are watching
Southeast Alaskans expressed concern today for the future of their most important salmon rivers after authorities in British Columbia announced the re-opening of Mount Polley mine without having made recommended engineering, operational and safety changes. Less than a year ago Mount Polley’s tailings dam in southcentral B.C. collapsed, releasing 6.6 billion gallons of toxic waste including arsenic, lead, and nickel into salmon-producing lakes and streams of the Fraser River watershed. Alaska Natives, commercial fishing interests, business owners,,, Read the rest here 09:13
British Columbia approves reopening of Mount Polley mine after tailings spill; may threaten downstream Alaska watershed
The provincial government on Thursday approved a restart of Imperial Metal’s Mount Polley mine, which has been closed since its waste dam failed last August and released 6.6 billion gallons of toxic tailings including arsenic, lead and nickel into salmon-producing lakes and streams of the Fraser River watershed. Residents of southeastern Alaska, many of whom depend on fishing and tourism for their livelihoods, expressed concern at the announcement. Read the rest here 10:57
Mount Polley Mine Report Highlights Threats to Alaska Salmon, Fishing Jobs and Communities
A diverse group of Alaskans said a report released today on the Mount Polley mine disaster in British Columbia (B.C.) provides new evidence that mines planned and under construction in the B.C. headwaters of highly productive Southeast Alaska salmon rivers are a threat to multi-billion dollar fisheries and a way of life for thousands of Alaskans. They call for the U.S. State Department to engage in meaningful bilateral discussions with Canada that ensure better safeguards for salmon before such mines are allowed to move forward. Read the rest here 14:11
Mount Polley mine: sediment near spill may harm fish – B.C. tailings dam breach sent millions of cubic metres of wastewater and silt spilling into lakes and rivers
“All the raw data from the tests has been shared with First Nations and Interior Health,” said Polak. “The results were tested at an independent lab in Vancouver and show that the sediment poses no human health risk. However, it may pose adverse effects on aquatic life and it exceeds B.C. guidelines for sediments and contaminated sites regulation standards for copper and iron.” Read more here 10:17
Bands to start salmon testing
First Nations’ health officials are preparing to test salmon near the site of a massive mine tailing spill in B.C. amid fears in aboriginal communities that fish from affected lakes and rivers aren’t safe to eat. <Read more here> 18:47
