Mines Minister Waiting for Two More Reports on Mt. Polley
Minister of Mines Bill Bennett talks about changes Province will make to follow report recommendations – video courtesy BC government and Send toNews
Victoria, B.C. – While the Independent review Panel has determined the failure of the Mount Polley tailings pond was the result of a design fault, Minister of Mines, Bill Bennett says there are still two investigations underway but has announced three measures the Province will immediately undertake.
The two remaining probes are by the Chief Inspector of Mines, the other by the Conservation Officers Service.
Minister Bennett says the Chief Mines Inspectors report is likely ready in June. “Those two reports will go further to identify those responsible for making any mistakes.”
“What we know today is that the failure is much more complex and much more difficult to talk about” says Bennett, who says the design of the Mount Polley tailings pond failed to account for the layer of unstable materials.
In a nutshell, the weight of the dam was too heavy for the glacial till under the dam to support, that layer failed, causing a wall of the dam to collapse.
Bennett has announced three measures:
1. All mines with tailings dams must provide a letter by the end of June which indicates they have tested the geological materials beneath the dam to see if there are similar conditions at any other mines. If
those materials are present, the letters must also confirm whether sufficient investigations and testing were completed to properly understand the strength and location of those materials and that the dams were designed
to account for those conditions.
2. New requirement that all mines in B.C. establish an independent tailings dam review board (some mines already have such review panels in place)
3. Province will commence a code review to see how the Ministry can adopt Best Available practices and Best Available technologies.
“I am relieved there is a cause identified” said Bennett “This ( the breach) was an unprecedented event which we must do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Bennett has also released the inspections and third-party reviews of tailings storage facilities at other mines in B.C. There were no immediate safety concerns identified.
Comments
Good wording, “relieved there is a cause identified”. This provides a direction for everyone to look towards.
This is my take on it,
The final report will be, “it was beyond the expectation to do soil studies to that depth during design of the tailing pond thus the engineer of record have done all that he could to determine the design of the retention pond dam walls. However, this does not preclude the responsibility to the mine operator of modifying the dam without following the engineer of record recommendation. Thus any costs related to the breach will lie solely on the mine operator, for allowing these changes with no respect to the recommendation of the engineer of record.”
I am pretty sure the Engineers will be protected.
I understand from a news report earlier today, that the current Liberal Government had issued a directive to amend the dam, reducing the slope of the walls to provide a more stable structure. Unfortunately, the dam failed before the work was done.
Seems to me the tailings pond design was approved while under an NDP Government. I guess this would be a case of the Liberals being stuck fixing an NDP problem ;-)!
Think about it Bill —maybe you should have wrapped the walls with chicken wire for more support. A lot cheaper than concrete or better yet maybe some duct tape.
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