Williams Lake, B.C. – A big sigh of relief in Williams Lake today as the Province has approved Mount Polley’s application for a short-term permit to treat and then discharge water outside of the mine site.

The permit was deemed necessary as water levels in the Springer Pit were expected to reach capacity next April.

With the approval, treated water will now be discharged into Hazeltine Creek and flow to a sediment pond.

From there, the treated water would enter a pipeline that will discharge approximately 30 to 40 metres below the surface of Quesnel Lake.

Final approval was made by a statutory decision maker from the Ministry of Environment after a 30-day public consultation and comment period and a comprehensive technical review by the Cariboo Mine Development Review Committee.

Williams Lake Mayor Walt Cobb called the news an “early Christmas present.”

“I”m very pleased and I’m sure the 200 some employees that either are working or plan to get back to work are going to be very pleased as well.”

Despite the good news he says there are still a “whole bunch of hoops they (Imperial Metals) have to jump through.”

“This is just allowing some water to be drained off the springer pit,” says Cobb.

“There’s still a long term plan that needs to be put in place which will require a whole bunch of other consultation as far as the long-term permit and then of course they’ve got an application in to go back to full production.”

United Steelworkers local 1-425 president Paul French said he’s also pleased with today’s news though he expressed concerned about falling copper prices.

“We’re all nervous about copper prices of course. That’s the wildcard.”

Cobb shared that concern. “Oh definitely. We’ve got two mines, Gibraltar and Mt. Polley and they’re almost at their break even point as far as operations. If things don’t improve there could be some other shortfalls down the road.”