Water will forever be in the environment

LETTER — KGHM Ajax is probably proud of its recent, glossy booklet, two copies of which landed in my mailbox, personally addressed, then followed up by personal phone calls.

I was initially impressed by the quality of the booklet and the intent of the calls, but turned sour when neither of the callers could understand my questions, let alone answer them.

The brochure was slick, but very misleading and offensively superficial, as if written by ad-men confident in the gullibility of the reading public. I quote: “Led by science and informed by fact.” “Planning for the highest standards of sensitivity.”

These assertions stand in sharp contrast to the statement there will be “a zero-discharge facility, meaning that no wastewater will be discharged into the environment.”

This claim is patently false, insulting and absurd.

Just where does KGHM propose the water will go? The water is already in the environment and will be forever in the environment.

The mine is in the environment. The earth and the atmosphere are in the environment. Everything on earth is in the environment.

All that water, a half per cent of the two rivers’ flow, will not sit on that plateau forever.

Some will evaporate into the air, but most will seep into the ground and return to the river via whatever channels exist — Peterson Creek, Cherry Creek, Sahali aquifers and so on, which are already potentially dangerous.

And it will be toxic.

Led by science? Pretty shoddy science. Sensitivity? Pretty clumsy, in my opinion.

PIERCE GRAHAM

Kamloops

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