New Gold: air pollution report wrong
NEWS/ NEW AFTON — A report that shows the New Afton underground mine as one of the country’s biggest dust polluters is a mistake, says New Gold, the mine’s owner.
A press release from the Kamloops Physicians for a Healthy Environment last week said Highland Valley Copper is Canada’s second highest emitter of fine particulates (PM2.5) and New Afton is the third highest. It quoted statistics reported by the National Pollutant Release Inventory for 2012.
(New Gold photo)
The NPRI is a registry of pollutant release statistics under Environment Canada.
“… The present mines near Kamloops are large producers of fine particulate matter,” stated the physicians’ group in citing the NPRI and arguing that approval of the Ajax mine project would further deteriorate local air quality.
But New Gold released its own statement Friday saying the NPRI numbers were flawed.
“New Afton understands that the errors in the 2012 NPRI report has led to a misunderstanding and we apologize for any confusion this has caused,” read the statement, released by New Gold Inc. spokesperson Kora DeWalt-Gagnon.
It says “an overly conservative estimation using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emission factors” was used by a third-party consultant. That resulted in “a significant over estimation” of the amount of PM2.5 emissions from the mine, the company said.
It said consultants will do monitoring over the next month to come up with numbers specifically for New Afton rather than using averages. The new data will be used to update and improve the accuracy of the NPRI report, it continued, pointing out a high efficiency dust collection system was installed at the most significant emissions source last year.
“This control system has the effect of reducing the amount of total particulate matter by greater than 95 per cent.”
Monitoring by the B.C. Ministry of Environment at a station operated since February 2013 between Kamloops and the New Afton mine shows New Afton’s PM2.5 average emissions are about half the Health Canada guideline, said the company.
“Above all, New Afton is committed to protecting air quality in Kamloops.”
ArmchairMayor.ca 
The headline and text of this article suggest that the Kamloops Physicians (KPHES) made a mistake in their brochure when reporting New Gold’s release of PM2.5 emissions for 2012. It also says that there was an error in the NPRI database. It is my understanding that the NPRI database has the number officially reported to it by New Gold. KPHES used the number in this official Government of Canada database. The third-party who did the calculation was paid by New Gold. So it seems that any mistakes or errors were the responsibility of New Gold.
It is excellent news that New Gold is working on reducing their present and future releases of fine particles ; however, it is a bit unsettling that the mine is reported to have already concluded that there was “a significant over estimation” of its reported emission release before actually having done mine specific research, which it will do “ over the next month”. A conclusion should be reached after the research, not before.
What is clear is that a broader discussion of air quality in the city will benefit everyone living here.
Dr. Robert Schemenauer, Ph.D.
on behalf of
Kamloops Physicians for a Healthy Environment (KPHES)
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Leave it to the company in question to come up with the “right” numbers!
Unless there is an independent body assessing the data, which should be the government, there is no way I will believe the company’s numbers.
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I wonder if they will release the actual numbers (raw data) from those monitors. I drove to Lilloett yesterday and couldn’t believe the cloud of stuff coming from New Gold. My eyes aren’t PM sensors, but I would like to be able to see if they correlate with any numbers – everyone is talking about PM2.5, but what about 10?
It is crazy that companies (New Gold) don’t have to be accurate in their reporting. What is the point of the NPRI if the data submitted are incorrect? What is wrong withour government and their environmental oversight? Seems to me the answer is…..everything! The monitors have huge error margins, the companies don’t have to be accurate….how the heck can anyone know what is actually going on?
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One would think that mining companies would and should do all they can to mitigate dust. After all, it’s all profit blowing away in the wind.
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Unfortunately, no. The only thing that is profit is the ore which is a very small percentage of what they remove in open pit operations. There is much less waste rock at New Gold, but there are still lots of emissions from equipment, road dust and tailings (and substantial waste in low grade open pit operations). I wonder how many water trucks they are running there?
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Drive by when the wind is blowing and it’s close to a brown out. Hate to see it without the 95% improvement.
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