Mt Polley Tailings "pond" disaster in BC Interior

[arikara]

First Nations chief: Warning about B.C. tailings pond ‘ignored’

Concerns raised in a report three years before a massive tailings pond breached at the Mount Polley gold and copper mine in central British Columbia were “basically ignored,” said a First Nations leader whose territory has been soiled by the disaster.

Bev Sellers, chief of the Xatsull First Nation, also known as the Soda Creek Indian Band, said many members of her band were in tears when they learned of Monday’s release of a slurry of contaminated water and mine waste into several local waterways. “Because they know the destruction that’s going to happen from this breach. It’s just a real sad day,” she said in an interview Tuesday.

The breach of the earthen dam, at one end of the four-kilometre long pond, left a 45-metre wide long swath of muck the length of several football fields through a thick forested area near the open-pit mine southeast of Quesnel, B.C.

The release of 10 million cubic metres of water and 4.5 million cubic metres of silt into Polley Lake prompted drinking water warnings for Quesnel Lake, Polley Lake, Hazeltine Creek, Cariboo Creek and the Quesnel River up to its intersection with the Fraser River.

snip

Gerald MacBurney, a foreman at the dam for seven years before he recently quit, claimed the dam was breached last May and that weakened the whole system.

“When you get a breach, there’s more than one spot it breached. It weakened the whole system,” he said in an interview. “And that’s where it popped, right where it was breached. … I knew it was going to burst.”

An emotional Kynock flatly denied the claim. “The dam has never failed before,” he told the crowd.

snip

http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/warnings-about-b-c-tailings-pond-growth-ignored-before-collapse/

Mount Polley Mine tailings pond breach: helicopter flyover
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/mount-polley-mine-tailings-pond-breach-helicopter-flyover-1.2727531

Bill Bennett, Minister of Energy and Mines, responds to Mt. Polley Mine Incident
http://www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2014/08/bill-bennett-minister-of-energy-and-mines-responds-to-mt-polley-mine-incident.html

Mount Polley Mine tailings water 'very close' to drinking quality, company says
Imperial Metals president Brian Kynoch says he would drink water from tailings pond that leaked into rivers

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/mount-polley-mine-tailings-water-very-close-to-drinking-quality-company-says-1.2727776

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A 4 kilometer long "pond". When I hear the word pond, I think of something much smaller than a lake. How can they get away with calling a massive 4 kilometer long body of water a “pond”? It makes it sound like the “breach”… another good word… is just a little thing, nothing like a dam bursting with catastrophic results for rivers, lakes, wildlife and communities downstream.

Also, the president of the company said he'd totally drink the water in his tailings "pond". I bet he wouldn't drink it every day for the rest of his life like the people who live downstream will have to do, considering this is a sample of what is in there:

Mount Polley mine on-site disposal in 2013:

Arsenic (and its compounds): 406 tonnes
Lead (and its compounds) 177 tonnes
Nickel (and its compounds) 326 tonnes
Vanadium (except when in an alloy): 5,047 tonnes
Zinc (and its compounds): 2,169 tonnes
Cadmium (and its compounds): 6 tonnes
Cobalt (and its compounds): 475 tonnes
Phosphorus (total): 41,640 tonnes
Copper (and its compounds): 18,413 tonnes
Antimony (and its compounds) 14 tonnes
Manganese (and its compounds): 20,988 tonnes
Mercury (and its compounds): 3 tonnes
Selenium (and its compounds): 46 tonnes

[Joe Shlabotnik]

1. Hope the significance of this catches in with the media.

This shit is happening daily in 2nd and 3rd world counties every day, by 'Canadian' mining companies. Gut check time for those who support laissez faire economics, and Trade policy at home and abroad.

A good source of related:http://www.miningwatch.ca/

[arikara]

2. And as far as they're concerned

BC is a 2nd or even 3rd world place only suitable for resource extraction and pipelines. Get it all going just as fast as they can before the population wakes up.

The First Nations are who is going to save the province from this mess we let ourselves get into.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

3. I have a lot of hope, faith and support for the 1st nations.

But, the thing that always sticks in the back of mind, is 'are they playing politics/economics for a better deal' I'm with them 100%, UNTIL, they become capitalists; ultimately selling themselves and future generations out. Lets hope my cynicism is wrong, because I'd really prefer to 'have faith'.

[arikara]

4. Me too

I feel the same way. You phrased my niggling concerns very well indeed.

[Unknown Beatle]

6. First Nation chief ‘jumped in and took over’ when he saw chance to make money on project,

band member says.

August 4, 2014

By putting himself in line for a lucrative bonus just weeks before a massive provincial land deal was set to close, Kwikwetlem First Nation chief Ron Giesbrecht knowingly orchestrated his history-making payday, alleges a band member now leading the charge to turf him from office.

“This [project] has been in the works for a while.… Ron saw an opportunity to make some money, so he jumped in and took over,” said Kwikwetlem band member Ron Jackman.

Last Thursday, documents released under the new First Nations Financial Transparency Act revealed that Chief Giesbrecht collected $914,219 in 2013/2014 — effectively making him the highest-paid elected representative in all of Canada.

Most of the cash was due to an $800,000 bonus Chief Giesbrecht received as the likely result of an unspecified $8 million “economic benefit agreement” inked between the First Nation and the Province of B.C.

At the time, the chief would have only been a few months into a stint as the band’s economic development officer, where, under a since-removed portion of the contract for that job, he was entitled to receive a 10% cut of all “capital projects and business opportunities.”

In Chief Giesbrecht’s only media interview since his massive income became public, he said that the bonus came as a surprise.

“Whoever thought the bonus would be this much? I tell you, I never would have,” he told a reporter from Tri Cities NOW.

On Monday, Mr. Jackman questioned that statement.

“Once we get a forensic audit, it will come out that Ron knew about this before he took the job on,” he said.

Until January of 2013, the post of economic development officer had been held by Andrea Aleck, a former health director with the Vancouver-area Tsleil-Waututh Nation who later went on to take a job with the nearby Katzie First Nation.

Eight months later, in September, Chief Giesbrecht took over the post “in order to keep millions of dollars worth of projects moving,” according to a Tri-Cities NOW account of their interview with the chief.

More

[arikara]

12. I'm kind of torn about this one

it seems excessive, but when you read about it there doesn't seem to be any wrong doing either. I know there are lots of underhanded dealings going on in positions of power in any culture.

But there are many traditional natives holding the line against enbridge and other resource companies up north.

[intaglio]

5. k&r for visibility

[laundry_queen]

7. I'd like to point out something

"An emotional Kynock flatly denied the claim. “The dam has never failed before,” he told the crowd. "

This guy is a civil engineer. HE SHOULD FUCKING KNOW BETTER. My brother is a civil engineer and he said he's seen no end of shortcutting in the name of profit in his job (he's a 'by the rules' person, like I am, and often had to fight to get everyone to follow regs. More than once he refused to put his name on a project because it was substandard only to have some other idiot from another engineering firm who didn't care sign off on it.) If Kynock didn't understand the weaknesses of an earthen damn, then he should have his stamp taken away. *I* could see the issue from a few minutes of tv! You are right - that was no 'pond'.

[arikara]

8. They were warned about it 3 years ago

but it was ignored. I wonder if the over 150,000 in donations to the BC Libs had anything to do with the lack of enforcement? Meanwhile, Kristy is tweeting about it instead of going up to the region.

This Tyee article has more info, read the comments too.

http://www.thetyee.ca/News/2014/08/06/Mount-Polley-Tailings-Claims/

Company's Claims of Clean Tailings 'Misleading': Ex-Employee
A mining worker is accusing his former employer of "misleading" the public on toxins contained in its Mount Polley copper and gold mine tailings, and says Imperial Metals Ltd. is attempting to "sugarcoat" its dam accident that saw 10 million cubic metres of water pour into Hazeltine Creek in the Cariboo region of British Columbia.

[laundry_queen]

9. It's really unfuckingbelievable

To me, thinking back to my business law class, it's clearly criminal negligence (I saw the interview with the former employee on CBC). A reasonable person could see this would happen and the people in charge, which includes an engineer, definitely should've known.

Also, Bill Bennett was a total asshole to the CBC reporter today when he was lying about how many warnings there had been. She was trying to call him on it and he got all testy. I think that shows that there's something 'there' as you say, related to the donations. I had to LOL when they were saying, "there wasn't multiple warnings, there was one. The other warnings weren't about the pond, they were only about the company not draining the pond when asked."

Interesting comments. I want to get into the comment about fiduciary duty but we'd be here forever...needless to say, lots of people in this company were not doing their job.

It's also totally shocking about Christie Clark TWEETING instead of getting out in front of this and visiting the area. She has always seemed more politically astute than that. They are clearly trying to minimize what happened. I hope it bites them in the ass.

[arikara]

11. I guess she finally got shamed into going

Mount Polley mine spill: Christy Clark visits disaster zone
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/mount-polley-mine-spill-christy-clark-visits-disaster-zone-1.2730042

[Scuba]

10. Not a pretty sight ...