Twenty-four million cubic meters of silt, metals and water spilled into the adjacent waterways, when the Mount Polley tailings pond dam breached. It has been called one of Canada’s worst environmental disasters. The province’s independent review panel made six recommendations, one of which was that tailings and water should not be mixed anymore in BC. This did not please the mining companies who say dry stacking of tailings would cost too much. The Clark Government appears to concur. An application to restart Mount Polley, with tailings in water, is under consideration. The Secwepemc Peoples regard this as “a violation of sovereignty” which “opens the territory up to further damage.” Is BC setting the stage for another Mount Polley Disaster?
Despite the problems, Dr Allan Hoffman (a retired senior executive from the US Department of Energy) believes there is simply too much money invested in the fracking revolution to stop it. With proper regulation and enforcement, he believes it is possible to reduce the number of incidents to an acceptable level. If this statement seems jarring, remember everyone who drives a car is taking an acceptable risk whenever they get behind the wheel. So what are BC’s Requirements For Disclosing Fracking Chemicals?
The great stands of Douglas Fir that many of our ancestors saw are largely gone. Isolated pockets persists. IN the following interview Ross Muirhead, of the Elphinstone Logging Focus, talks about the attempt to save 98 ‘Old Vets’ on Mount Elphinstone. ” is an ECO Radio interview broadcast on CKTZ (Cortes Island Community Radio) , CJMP (Powell River Community Radio) and CFSI (Green FM – Salt Spring Island Radio).
Kimberly’s city council has a history of embracing innovation. They rebranded Kimberly “the Bavarian city of the Rockies” once it became apparent the Sullivan mine was going to run out. Further ventures into tourism led to the acquisition of the local ski hill and construction of what is now one of Canada’s 10 top golf courses. Both of these projects have since been sold. The city was ready for something new when Michel de Spot, CEO of Vancouver’s Ecosmart Foundation, approached them in 2008. He said the former Sullivan mine is the perfect site for a utility scale solar project.
The NEB says Kinder Morgan Does not have to answer British Columbia’s questions about responding to an oil spill.The province’s motion concerning redactions to the Emergency Management Program (EMP) documents because “sufficient information has been filed from the existing EMP documents to meet the Board’s requirements at this stage of the process”.
