Canada's lakes, ponds turning into mining dumps: environmental critics

Canadian Press

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. (CP) - Lakes and ponds across Canada will become junkyards for mining companies now that Ottawa has allowed Aur Resources Inc. (TSX:AUR) to dump waste into two Newfoundland water outlets, environmental critics said Friday.

Trout Pond and an unnamed lake near Buchans in central Newfoundland were approved last month to serve as dumping grounds for the tailings from the company's Duck Pond copper-zinc operation.

"It is precedent-setting across the country," said Joan Kuyek, national co-ordinator with MiningWatch Canada, based in Ottawa.

"It's going to happen all over and it means that increasingly mining companies, with the high price of metals these days, they're in a hurry to get going."

For decades, bodies of water throughout the country have served as areas where mining companies could legally dump a fine granular waste known as tailings.

But in 2002, changes under the Fisheries Act aimed at tightening the practice were passed.

The reclassification of the two lakes in Newfoundland marks the first time since then that bodies of water have been allowed to be used as tailing waste impoundment areas.

The change is an ominous sign of things to come for at least nine other lakes and ponds in British Columbia, Quebec and Nunavut that Ottawa is currently considering converting into mining dumps, Kuyek said.

"Given the state of the fishery in Canada and the need for fresh water, mining may not be the highest and best use of these lakes," she said.

Chris Doiron, chief of mining for Environment Canada, said the federal government's regulations allowing mining companies to dump waste into water were meticulously assembled and rank among the most stringent in the world.

"There are some that are philosophically opposed to the use of fish-bearing waters for any purpose at all," Doiron said.

"What needs to be borne in mind is that fundamentally, any such project that moves forward does so under very strict regulatory requirements that, among other things, preclude the possibility of a loss of fish habitat as a result of the project."

Fish in the two affected Newfoundland lakes were moved to other basins and environmental improvements have been implemented on an adjacent brook that was ravaged by previous logging operations, Doiron said.

Companies must also post a security bond to ensure that any future cleanups, should protective measures such as dams fail, would be covered, he said.

But such a gamble at the expense of the environment is not worth taking, Kuyek said.

"At the end of it, you'll have lost a very important piece of fish habitat and you'll have this mess to monitor forever," she said.

"And the mine will have made the profit and walked away."

NDP fisheries critic Peter Stoffer called on the federal environment and fisheries ministries to stop the practice, suggesting they should instead encourage the construction of isolated, land-based dumping grounds.

"We have hundreds and hundreds of mine operations in the country operating very effectively in regards to the environment," Stoffer said.

"Why would you allow a company the cheaper way out by using a natural river system?"