Mt Polley’s permit for a temporary restart of operations was discussed last night in Likely.
Rod Marining, a resident from 150 Mile House and also Chair of the B.C Environmental Network, says he is puzzled that the mine’s re-opening can even be considered, with the two ongoing investigations.
Laurie Halls, Assistant Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Environment’s Environmental Protection Division offered this explanation.
Halls says that the provincial government has had assurances from the Conservation Office Services and also Chief Inspector of Mines that a decision on Mt. Polley’s restart will have no impact on the investigations.
Marining went on to say that despite the still relatively positive test results from both Imperial Metals and the Ministry of Environment, he remains deeply concerned.
Imperial Metals has estimated the total clean-up from the August 4th breach at $67.4 million dollars, which Vice President of Corporate affairs Steve Robertson calls a fairly decent estimate.
Robertson says even if Mt. Polley does re-open or not water management will remain a concern at the mine site due to the estimated average of 6 million cubic meters of water that falls on the site each year.
Mt. Polley’s permit application can be viewed on the Ministry of Energy and Mines website.
A public community meeting is scheduled to take place in Williams Lake on April 22.
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