Number 10 of News1130’s Top 10 of 2014

LIKELY, BC (NEWS1130) – For lovers of BC’s pristine wilderness, it’s the unthinkable. And on August 4th, it happened.

The number 10 story in our Top 10 of 2014 is the breach of the tailings pond at the Mount Polley mine in BC’s northeast.

It’s a number almost too big to comprehend: nearly 25 million cubic metres of mining waste pouring into tiny Polley Lake near Likely, then spilling into Hazeltine Creek and eventually into Quesnel Lake.

To truly understand its magnitude, take a look at this video from the Cariboo Regional District:

For an area that survives on tourism, it was devastating and, according to Larry Chambers, who worked at the mine, entirely predictable.

“I think a grade fiver could actually look at the size of that tailings pond and figure it out — the height of it, the size of it, and all your lakes beside it and territories and creeks. It seemed like a no-brainer that there was going to be a problem. Fifty per cent of the people who worked there knew some disaster was going to happen,” he tells us.

Chambers says when he tried to warn the Ministry of Energy and Mines, he was fired.

In fact, problems with the tailings pond at the Mount Polley mine went back as far as 2011, when the owner, Imperial Metals, applied for an effluent discharge permit and was denied.

Mines Minister Bill Bennett was in the area immediately after and spoke at a townhall two days after the spill. “We have a lot of people on the ground here in the Cariboo, and a lot of people elsewhere who are contributing to what’s happening. This event shouldn’t have happened and we have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Imperial Metals President Brian Kynoch was also quick to speak, trying to reassure people the water was fine. “We need to confirm that with water sampling, but the water quality, once the solids fall out, should be good.”

When asked if he would drink the water, Kynoch said, “Yes, I’d drink the water. But it’s of no consequence whether … I’d drink the water once the solids come out.”

Testing in the days and weeks after the breach showed the water was near to drinking standards and the risk to fish and wildlife was far less than first feared.

By all accounts, the clean-up will take hundreds of millions of dollars and years to complete, and the area may never be returned to its original state.

The Mount Polley mine has not operated since the spill, and a document posted online by Imperial Metals says costs related to the spill in September were almost $70 million, including $20 million in clean-up.

As for what happened, the province appointed a three-person independent inquiry to investigate the spill and make recommendations to ensure it doesn’t happen again. That’s being paid for by Imperial Metals and we should have a report by the end of next month.

Tomorrow, we’ll unveil number 9 in News1130’s Top 10 of 2014.