Imperial Metals Releases Tailings Details
Debris from tailings pond breach – photo courtesy Cariboo Regional District
Likely, B.C. –Further to information that the initial water tests on Quesnel Lake and Quesnel River showed positive results, Imperial Metals has released information on its tailings pond water and elements.
The chart below shows the average annual amounts of the solids in the tailings pond for last year.
The second chart shows the analysis of tailings pond water from August of 2009 to May of 2014. The chart displays the mean, maximum and minimum levels for the 5 years and the Drinking Water Guidelines are included for comparison.
According to the information provided by Imperial Metals, levels of arsenic, mercury and lead are well below the allowable maximum levels for drinking water. Sulphates, mean selenium and the total dissolved solids exceed limits for drinking water.
Numbers in red indicate those elements which exceed the Canadian Drinking water Guidelines.
Comments
These chemicals etc came from Mother Earth.Now we are putting some of them back.
I haven’t heard results for Hazeltine Creek or Polley Lake. Are they being tested?
Also, First Nations have been posting images of the salmon caught in their nets yesterday, showing some very damaged fish.
Are the fish being analyzed?
This is an ecological disaster, one that should never have happened! The images are not pretty and have evoked fears of a worst case scenario!
But so far, thankfully it seems that things may not be as bad as initial reports suggested.
I hope that the news keeps being “better” than we all expect it to be!
The numbers mean little.. What about evaporation? It will concentrate these poisons.. What about all the heavy contaminants that sink.. They also are heavily concentrated and entered the water system when the pond failed horribly.
Seagull you are a IDIOT.
That’s what I was wondering P Val. Unless I’m mistaken (and I could very well be), the water was just one part of this. The other was the slurry and all of the other crud from the ponds that will eventually settle in the lakes and/or be exposed to the elements. I seem to recall a statement by the president of Imperial Metals saying something to the same effect.
So, what about those impacts? Can they be measured in days and weeks, or are we looking at years and decades before the full impact can be analyzed?
So Bill Bennett. Our mines minister says the residents may have gotten lucky…,how. The rivers and lajpkes are now polluted with all this junk..
How about all political offices and Victoria drink only this water for a month…seeing it’s fine. That will be a great test to me….
What pollution? Did you not read the report?
seadog go kennel up
Answer my question?
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