Action plan demanded on mine breach
NEWS/ MOUNT POLLEY — The Environment Ministry has ordered the Mount Polley Mining Corp. to close the breach in its tailings pond and submit a clean-up action plan immediately.
The company must also submit a detailed action plan by next Friday and report weekly on action plan measures.
Mount Polley mine.
The ministry made the announcement today as the full impact of Monday’s breach in the tailings pond that sent millions of cubic metres of contaminated waste water into nearby waterways was being assessed.
The community of Likely remains under a strict water-use ban, with bottled water being delivered by the Cariboo Regional District. The entire Quesnel River system up to the Fraser River is under a “do not drink” advisory.
The ban doesn’t apply to Williams Lake or Quesnel and other towns along the Fraser River.
The regional district has declared a local state of emergency, allowing it to access private property with heavy equipment support to the West Fraser Mills forest company, which is using tug boats to try to control woody debris in Lake Quesnel.
The tug boats have been working in the area to boom the debris, with excavators on standby. A government news release said “significant progress” has been made in efforts to stop debris from reaching the Likely Bridge.
Imperial Metals, which owns the mine, is looking at ways to lower the water level in Polley Lake, such as pumping water into a historic empty pit on the site or pumping or diverting the water to Hazeltine Creek.
The breach in the tailings pond itself still hasn’t been closed but plans are being made to build a berm to stop further tailings from flowing into Hazeltine Creek. “The flow out of the breach has decreased dramatically but has not completely stopped,” said the update.
“A small amount of tailings backed into the mouth of Polley Lake and the main slurry flow went down Hazeltine Creek where it meets Quesnel Lake. The slurry and a large debris pile appear to be stationary at this point.”
The cause of the breach is being investigated by Ministry of Environment conservation officers and Ministry of Energy and Mines inspectors.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Sounds to me like the action plan should have been demanded years ago!
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Yeah, they sure jumped right on it didn’t they?
Well, it did happen over a long weekend and you can’t expect a hard working CEO to give up his me time.
At least now there won’t be an ‘issue’ with the tailings pond being overfull and IM doesn’t have to worry about a pesky permit to treat and release – they can keep on keeping on, phew!
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