Water testing results reassuring

NEWS/ MOUNT POLLEY — Preliminary test results show water in the area of the Mount Polley tailings-pond disaster is within drinking-water standards, say the Environment Ministry and Interior Health Authority.

Despite the encouraging test results, a total ban on water use in the area of the Mount Polley open-pit copper mine will stay in effect for the time being.

The results were released today at a public meeting in Likely attended by Premier Christy Clark and other provincial politicians and officials.

“Everything we see is very, very reassuring,” said Dr. Trevor Corneil, a medical health officer with the IHA in Kelowna. But he said the ban on water use will remain in place until testing can be completed at Polley Lake and it’s certain the lake won’t breach and flow into Quesnel Lake.

“We need reassurance about the water that may come from Polley Lake before we can recommend that people either drink it or shower with it or eat anything that may come from it,” Corneil told the meeting.

Some of the tailings backed into the mouth of Polley Lake when the breach occurred Monday.

An Environment Ministry spokesperson said water samples were taken from different areas of Quesnel Lake and Quesnel River at the Likely townsite on Monday and tested for contaminants such as copper, mercury, phosporus and arsenic.

She said it takes three days to collect the samples, get them to an airplane and to labs in Vancouver and complete the testing. She said every precaution is taken to ensure nobody is “monkeying with them.”

Samples continue to be taken daily. “We’re moving as fast as we possibly can.”

Clark said the cause of the tailings pond’s failure still isn’t known. “Our hearts are with you. I know it’s just been a terrible, terrible heartache and we are gonna be with you shoulder to shoulder,” she told the meeting.