Prince George, B.C. – Imperial Metals is now into its second day of pumping water out of Polley Lake, around the blockage, back into Hazeltine Creek where it will flow into Quesnel Lake.

The decison was based on  water test results  from Polley Lake, testing that had been done by Imperial Metals.

Interior Health  Medical Health Officer Dr. Trevor Corneil  says the Imperial Metals test results  showd that most parameters " were within drinking water guidelines, both in Canada and in other jurisdictions.  Two areas of note were ph, which is the acidity, and that can affect our ability to keep drinking water clean from bacteria, either on its own or using chemicals such as chlorine to keep in check.  There was also a small amount of dissolved organic carbon compound and we cannot to have that in our drinking water.  It’s again something that impacts disinfectant but does not impact quality of water.  So the results we see are more reassurance that what was in the tailing pond and what is in Polley lake will in fact be, once diluted in Quesnel Lake, extremely diluted and reach baseline.”

But  while the water may be clean enough to  allow the pumping to go ahead, Dr. Corneil was not  prepared to  lift the  water use ban from Quesnel Lake  and Polley Lake beacuse the test results are  not independent even though  they  are happy with the labs that were used to  analyze the samples " We would like a sample from the Ministry of Environment to reassure us and corroborate the results.  The more results we have that tell us that these tailings are clean and healthy to drink the more reassured I can be when it comes time to lift the order and allow people to use the water.  At this time I see no reason to believe that there will be a problem with health regarding eating of any of the fish or other life products in the water, but again, I am saying wait until we get the results and are able to corroborate those.”

Also over the weekend the Cariboo Regional District issued an Order to Restrict Access to the area designated by the order.  It restricts access to everyone except those granted permission to enter by the CRD, the mine or the government.