Looks like the whole area is a write off hey Sophic..?

Did these beavers go to the same school as the Mt Polley engineers?!?

First time I’ve heard of a beaver dam breaching. Lazy Beavers!

Maybe it had help from someone.

Grizzly2 don’t you remember the beaver damn that failed and flooded out the area at foothills around 1995? You have to remember.. Just like engineers..some beavers only got a C- in school :)

It was Harper & Clark in that 5th wheel on a secret mission, breaching that dam to deflect our attention from the Mt. Polley spill… ;) Years ago a beaver dam let go on Cranbrook Hill & flooded out the subdivision on the north side of Foothills. Geez Sophic, look at the devastation from one damn dam…

There were 84,831 kilograms of arsenic in the Mount Polley tailings pond before it’s catastrophic breach. It only takes about .25 grams of arsenic to kill a person… so yeah, the whole area is a write-off.

Good comment Steve Cooley.

Next time the beavers should add a spillway

“There were 84,831 kilograms of arsenic in the Mount Polley tailings pond before it’s catastrophic breach.” Did all that arsenic make it into the lake? How many kilograms of water are in that lake at any one time? How much water has flowed into & out of the lake since the spill? How much of the arsenic in the lake is naturally occurring? What is the dilution factor? What scientific evidence are you using to “write off” the entire area? Remember 1 litre of water has a mass of 1 kilogram.

By Sophics logic, arsenic somehow travels uphill to Cariboo lake deeming the whole area a write off.. I doubt Sophic even lives in the 250 area code..

Sophic is probably a land speculator and wants to drive down land value in an amazing recreation area to acquire property cheaper. Beware the trolls.

Don’t fed the troll detoe44, Sage knows the levels of arsenic in the tailings water was just over the average for natural creeks and rivers in the area and is just posting for a response.

In 1981 they did a survey of area creeks and rivers when the mine first saw the light of day and the average was between .5 and 750 ppm of arsenic or an average of 6.2 ppm 26 miles from the mine site. The tailings pond contained 10.6 ppm arsenic.

This was likely caused by non union beavers.

Not that it matters, but how much of the 84,831 kilograms of arsenic contained in the tailings pond BEFORE the breach remained in the pond after the breach?

From sophie’s point of view, every gram of arsenic held in the tailings pond before the breach has now drained out of the tailings pond!

sophie likes to spout off about “facts and truths”, but the “facts and truths” about natural occurring levels of arsenic in the environment don’t align with her version of the “facts and truths”!

Let’s ignore those “facts and truths” eh sophie??

Prior to the catastrophic Mount Polley tailings pond breach, there were 138 tonnes of cobalt contained in it.

Swallowing a large amount of absorbable cobalt at one time is very rare and likely not too dangerous. This may cause nausea and vomiting. However, absorbing a large amount of cobalt over longer periods of time can lead to serious health problems such as: cardiomyopathy, possible nerve problems, thickening of the blood, and thyroid problems.

All the people who so carelessly try to minimize the toxicity of the Mount Polley tailings pond effluent, should be made to answer the following question:

If the contents of the tailings pond effluent is not very harmful to the environment, why did they try and contain it and keep it from spilling into the environment in the first place?

The answer to that question of course is that the effluent is TOXIC to the environment and to human health.

Sophie, are you giving up on the arsenic issue? Guess you didn’t like the facts and truths that were put forth by some other posters, eh?

Time to move on to cobalt!

Dumbfounded, they had to be unionized to screw it up, maybe they were picketing at the time…….
Pval, 1995 I was on the Sunshine Coast, and beavers down there were non union, done a good job.
Damn deer were sneaky, but finally got one….

Side effects of cobalt may include… Be sure to ask your doctor if cobalt is right for you..

Great video , cheers , thanks a lot .

slinky states; “Don’t fed the troll detoe44, Sage knows the levels of arsenic in the tailings water was just over the average for natural creeks and rivers in the area and is just posting for a response.”

While that may be true slinky that thin layer of water is not where the toxic heavy metals and poisons are, it is in the millions of tonnes of sludge that poured down Hazeltine Creek and into Polley Lake and Quesnel Lake.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) limits levels of mercury to no more than 2 parts per billion (ppb) for water, anything more than that is considered toxic. The Mount Polley tailings solids contains 70.0 ppb mercury, that’s 35 times higher than the FDA safe limits for mercury.

The US Environmental Protection Agency has established the following standard; “If more than 10% of tap water samples exceed the lead action level of 15 parts per billion (that’s 0.015 ppm), then water systems are required to take additional actions. The Mount Polley tailings solids contain 4.9 ppm lead, which is 327 time above the US EPA standard.

Why does mountain creek water taste so good? Its because of all the minerals and chemicals from the rocks it absorbs on its way down the mountain. Not only that, its good for you too!
Imagine that!

You into munching on tailings solids there sage? What are the levels in the water flowing down the river? What are the levels in the lake water? The university and others are monitoring those levels and has the sky fallen?

You are taking all these allowable safe limits dissolved in water from FDA and other sources and applying them to solids, there is an error in your ways to try and make a point you don’t have.

The small creek where the Beaver Dam burst is called Duck Creek. The camper trailer up the hill by the small lakes that drained is a placer miner’s whose mine is back at Rollie creek. He doesn’t draw water from this water course for mining nor impact this area in anyway as his placer mine is approximately 2 km’s away down the small logging road. The road is small & rough so he doesn’t drive trailer all of the way in to the mine site.
Hazeltine Creek where it enters Quesnel Lake is like 29 km away. Cariboo River & Lake is an entirely different river system joining the Quesnel River at Quesnel Forks. For those of you that can’t or are just too lazy to try to read a map I thought this may help.
Without this forgotten this little corner of British Columbia { where over 50 % of PLACER gold ever found in B.C. was DEPOSITED on the 93 A mapsheet } & the trail of GOLD leading to the ghost town of Keithley Creek, Barkerville { 93 H mapsheet = 15 % of placer gold found 155 years+} may not have ever been found until modern times.
B.C. was brought into confederation mainly for the GOLD in this area & Silver down by our southern border in Boundary country.
We here in B.C. could all be AMERICANS … {or Russians!} without this Gold discovery. Thank You Doc Keithley & friends for saving us all from either of these two fates!

sounds like we need a public inquiry.

Give more states; “Why does mountain creek water taste so good? Its because of all the minerals and chemicals from the rocks it absorbs on its way down the mountain. Not only that, its good for you tool!Imagine that!”

Perhaps you should take a long deep drink out of Polley Lake, Hazeltine Creek, or the north arm of Quesnel Lake? Typical, I research and present the facts and truths of the situation and the cons on this site respond with opinions. This is how our country is being run folks, by people with the same I.Q. and level of knowledge, as I said before; we could have a rock or stick representing us… same difference.

Here we are talking about levels of toxic metals and poisons, yet they comment on it like it’s a joke… how responsible is that? If we were all Conservative give us a Darwin award and let us go extinct, we don’t seem to care.

Sophie, I really really hate to bring this to your attention but yesterday you stated the following:

“I pride myself in having higher standards than Conservatives, and I certainly do not resort to name calling like some of the one’s on here do!”

And yet, you have now posted suggesting that our country is being run by people with the same I.Q. and level of knowledge as a rock or stick! You then continue with your disparaging remarks towards all Conservatives!

So much for you having higher standards than Conservatives!

I’ll take this opportunity to remind you that only a couple of weeks ago, you posted a very rude comment towards me, one that I called you on, one where I felt an apology was definitely in order and yet you didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to offer an apology!

Some time ago, I posted a comment which in hindsight I considered to be a rude and uncalled for comment. I immediately posted an apology for my comment!

How does it feel to have less integrity than a Conservative, Sophie??

Posted on Saturday, July 18, 2015 @ 12:45 PM by Sophic Sage
“I research and present the facts and truths of the situation and the cons on this site respond with opinions…Here we are talking about levels of toxic metals and poisons, yet they comment on it like it’s a joke… how responsible is that? If we were all Conservative give us a Darwin award and let us go extinct, we don’t seem to care.”

It is not a joke, but your opinion appears to be leaning in that direction. Try understanding what you are reading. There could be a million parts per billion in solids but it makes no difference if the water has one part per billion. Your “numbers” and “research” mean nothing if you do not know how they relate to each other, like it has been stated – there are still solids within the tailings pond. The escaping water washed some of that with it down the creek and into the lake. How much? There is no way to tell exactly, for all you and I know all the toxic solids were at the other end of the pond and still there. You have no numbers or way of getting the numbers to say otherwise.

What means anything is water tests conducted in the area. Again, you do not have access to even these compete results. UNBC and government bodies are taking samples, if there was anything of great importance in these samples the results would be released in a heartbeat by UNBC – but by the lack of breaking news on this we can assume the results are within drinking water guidelines.

Once you go take some samples and get different results than everyone else has been getting please get back to us.

A dose of selenium as small as 5 mg per day can be lethal for many humans. The Mount Polley tailings pond contained 8,695 kilograms of selenium before its catastrophic rupture. We need to consider, if just 5 mg per day can be fatal to humans who weigh on average 160 pounds, what amount is toxic to birds of prey weighing just a few pounds like eagles, ospreys and kingfishers? They and their young are feeding on selenium filled fish in Polly Lake and Quesnel Lake every day!!! What about their babies weighing just ounces, as their parents feed them selenium filled fish, who much selenium does it take to kill baby birds that weigh just ounces?

The food chain is a complex system, far too complex for simpleton conservative minds, who feel threatened by smart people like scientists, yet it is science that we need to come up with the right answers and solutions to these big problems.