Mt. Polley Restart Decision Expected in June
Prince George, B.C. – A decision regarding a restricted restart for the Imperial Metals Mount Polley operation in Likely is expected some time next month.
This after the public comment period wrapped up on Saturday. Public comments were submitted to both the Mine Development Review Committee and Victoria.
“As is always the case with these types of applications, independent statutory decision makers will now decide whether to issue the required permits and authorizations” says Ministry of Energy and Mines spokesperson David Haslam.
“There will be additional public comment periods in the future related to applications for water treatment and discharge at the mine once those applications have been received. The next public comment period is expected to occur for a short-term water discharge application.”
United Steelworkers Local 1-425 president Paul French told 250 News in March he hopes a decision is made as quickly as possible because jobs are at stake.
“The process has to happen,” said French. “The consultation has to happen.”
Imperial laid off around 50 workers in February and another 36 back in November.
All of this after the tailings pond breached last August.
Comments
Can’t wait for the environmental nut jobs to start jumping all over the report when it comes out
How about this one:
As reports of dead fish in the contaminated Hazeltine Creek emerged early Tuesday, John Werring, senior science and policy adviser for the David Suzuki Foundation, said, “You can pretty well say all the fish in Hazeltine Creek are now gone and not likely to return anytime soon. And if fish do get into that system — I’m sure the water will be contaminated significantly for some time — it would be almost impossible for them to survive.”
“Because they are filtering the water to breathe, the contaminants could be lethal, that could be the end of them. If they are carrying a load of these heavy metals further upstream they are acting as a vector for a contaminate,” said Ellen Petticrew, an environmental scientist at the University of Northern British Columbia, who was en route to the area Tuesday.
And that was from last year, this year – Petticrew said those salmon “seem to have spawned very successfully,”
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