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Imperial Metals Releases Tailings Details

Friday, August 8, 2014 @ 9:44 AM

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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