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Wednesday, June 24 2015
Volume 95 - No. 25
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www.ldnews.net
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$1.30 GST inc.
BURNS LAKE
LAKES DISTRICT NEWS
Morrison Mine’s
assessment resumes
A final decision will be made in less than 30 days FLAVIO NIENOW
Minister of environment Mary Polak has lifted the suspension of the environmental assessment of the Morrison Copper/Gold Mine project. The time period remaining for the environmental assessment of the Morrison Mine project is 30 days, ending on July 9, 2015. Morrison Mine’s environmental assessment had been suspended after the Mount Polley Copper/Gold Mine disaster. In June 2014, a massive dam holding the toxic waste water from the Mount Polley mine collapsed, releasing 25 million cubic metres of contaminated water and mining waste, contaminating lakes, creeks and rivers. Earlier this year, the province’s environmental assessment office ordered Pacific Booker Minerals to reassess its plan for storing tailings under water and behind an earth-and-rock dam at the proposed Morrison Mine. An engineering panel recommended that industry must move away from storing tailings under water behind earthen dams. The panel also suggested filtering tailings to remove the water and dry stacking them to eliminate the risk of tailings dam failures. On March 23, 2015, Pacific Booker Minerals submitted a report to the environmental assessment office in regards to the Mount Polley tailings storage facility failure. The report reinforced the company’s position that the Morrison Mine project has been designed “using best available practices and could be safely constructed, operated, and closed to protect the environment.” Polak’s decision implies that the responses ...see MORRISON MINE
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Dancing queens
Gemma and Cheyenne strut their stuff in the traditional dance off contest for ages zero to four. More pictures on page 2. JESSI JACK PHOTO
Is Burns Lake water safe?
MICHAEL RIIS-CHRISTIANSON Although local drinking water is regularly subjected to more than 50 different tests, Burns Lake is one of several hundred Canadian municipalities that doesn’t check potable water for all harmful contaminants. Health Canada’s 2014 Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality gives Maximum Acceptable Concentrations (MACs) for 75 substances considered harmful to humans. Records provided by the municipality last week indicate that Burns Lake tests its tap water for less than a third of them. Northern Laboratories’ May 25, 2015 analytical report on a water sample drawn May 4, 2015 from one of the municipality’s three deep water wells on
Gerow Island lists test results for only 15 of the 75 contaminants listed in the Canadian drinking water guidelines. Other documents available through Northern Health, Burns Lake’s other testing agency, indicate that village water is checked regularly for the bacteria Escherichia coli (commonly referred to as e. coli) and total coliforms, two additional measures recommended by Health Canada in its Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality. While Burns Lake regularly tests its water for such well-known harmful mineral contaminants as antimony, arsenic, boron, cadmium, lead, mercury, and uranium, the Northern Laboratory and Northern Health reports suggest it does not check regularly for such substances as benzene, carbon ...see WATER ▼ P6
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Phone: 250.692.1700 • Fax: 250.692.1750 • Toll Free: 1.866.692.1943 545 Highway 16 West • PO Box 5000, Burns Lake, BC • V0J 1E0 Email: lksdist@cnc.bc.ca • Website: www.cnc.bc.ca/lakesdistrict