Prince George, B.C. – The slumber of winter may have slowed some portions of the probe into the Mt Polley tailings pond breach last summer but University of Northern BC staff continue their work unabated at the Quesnel River Research Centre located, ironically, at the community most directly affected by the disaster, Likely.

Last August 4^th, British Columbia Day, the breach sent 17 million cubic metres of water and 8 million cubic metres of tailings containing potentially toxic metals into Hazeltine Creek and Quesnel Lake.

Dr. Philip Owens with the Environmental Science Program at UNBC says other than holiday disruptions and “the large amount of snow that they’ve had down there in the last week or two, yes, we are still continuing to collect samples.” He says there are three full-time staffers at the centre right now who receive periodic assistance from research students. As well an advertisement has now gone out for a high-level scientist to be based at the QRRC and do Mt. Polley-related work. That person, preferably, would be someone who has extensive experience, someone with a PhD in contaminant transport and/or to do with contaminants in the food chain.”

“So we are taking samples now primarily from the Quesnel River, which passes by the research station. We have some instruments in the river and students are taking samples as well of the water and sediment.” He says there are three full-time staffers at the centre right now who receive periodic assistance from research students in the collection of samples

“And then, because conditions on Quesnel Lake are quite difficult now for getting boats on, we have some moorings in the lake with our partners at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans which will be recording things over the winter period automatically at certain points in the lake.” Dr. Owens says those readings will include such things as temperature and turbidity “to tell us a little bit about how the plume of sediment that we now know is in the lake is moving both up lake and down lake through the winter period.”

Dr. Owens says the most noticeable impact winter weather is having is on “access to locations which you might not be able to get to. Accessing to Hazeltine Creek and to Polley Lake are more problematic with the deep snow. And we have certainly downsized what we are doing on the lake because the conditions there are difficult with the cold and ice and snow conditions. But we do have some plans to try to get into Hazeltine Creek and Polley Lake with the assistance of our partners at the Ministry of Environment.”

Dr. Owens says “it’s a moderately quiet time in terms of the hydrology because everything is in that sort of semi-dormant situation. But what we’ve got to do is make sure that when the freshets come, which is going to be the next critical period when the waters start to flow into the rivers and lakes, that we’re ready and set to get that period. So we’re trying to come up with a plan to make sure that when that happens, in April or whenever, that we’re ready to get that next flush or pulse of material as it comes through the system.”

He says “one of the things that we can do quite easily at this time of year is monitor the Quesnel River, which is what we’re doing. There are predictions that Imperial Metals (the Mt. Polley mine owner) has put forward that the main pulse (or peak) of turbidity that will come from the lake will come in the next month or two. So they have modeled that the pulse of sediment as a function of the breach will come out of the lake into the river in January or February.”

Dr. Owens says, to his knowledge, no animal carcasses have turned up since the M t. Polley tailings pond breach occurred last August. However he adds “I would expect the times and the impacts to be felt in mammals and ungulates would be a little bit longer but certainly the first signs would be through the aquatic food chain. There is ongoing sampling and testing through the Ministry of Environment and QRRC and we’re waiting to get the full results of those. We do have a meeting with some of the First Nations bands in the area coming up towards the end of this month, and I think that will probably be a point of discussion there but as far as I’m aware, I’m not at this time hearing any huge concerns about detrimental impacts on the aquatic or terrestrial organisms.”