Like the City of Williams Lake the Cariboo Regional District (CRD) is also expressing concern of the still awaiting approval for Mount Polley’s short term water discharge permit as Springer Pit continues to fill nearing its’ capacity.
Chair Al Richmond says a decision from a statutory maker has been slower than everyone has anticipated.
“We’re very concerned with the levels that are currently there where Springer Pit is and certainly hope we do not end up with a situation where the mine would have to shut down.”
Richmond says they have passed their concerns to the statutory decision maker and the provincial government.
“We have to also remember though in despite of the limited operations of the mine, the positive water balance on the site was going to continue so water was going to come onto the site in respect of the mine operating or not so that short term water discharge has to happen and we believe that it should happen.”
“The plan that was discussed with the communities which was using the creek as a short discharge plan for 2 years and we should be moving ahead with that as quickly as possible.”
Imperial Metals had applied for a short term water permit to discharge treated water from pipes placed within Hazeltine Creek into Quesnel Lake on July 16th of this year.
The pit which has a threshold of 1030 meters has a current water level of over 1024 meters.
The City of Williams Lake had expressed their concerns in a letter to Premier Clark which Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA, Donna Barnett says on Thursday she delivered.
Mayor Walt Cobb and Council say  they will further discuss the urgent need for the permit to be issued through a media conference on Monday.
Under the conditions of  their restricted operations permit, Mt. Polley would forced to cease operations if the levels at Springer Pit reached 1030 meters with the untreated water potentially exfiltrating into Boot Jack Lake and groundwater.
Something going on in the Cariboo you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
