What Kenney Had to Kill to Embrace Coal | The Tyee
Gone, as of last May, is the province’s 1976 Coal Policy, which protected the headwaters of rivers that secure drinking water for Canadians across the prairies.
The Crowsnest Pass is rich in history and unsurpassed beauty, with a mountain full of activities available from fly-fishing to skiing in the winter. There’s horseback riding, swimming, guided tours of historical landmarks and even challenging activities like mountain bike riding. You can spend the afternoon on a scenic golf course, or explore trails on off-highway vehicles. There’s always lots to do.
One certainly doesn’t want to miss The Frank Slide Interpretive Centre or explore an underground mine. It was the worst rockslide Canada has ever had. Over 90 people from the town of Frank were in the path of the mountain as it came down. Some bodies have never been recovered. Unfortunately this isn’t the only record setting tragedy in the area.
The Hillcrest mine disaster was the worst coal mining disaster in Canadian history, in June 1914. Only 48 of the 237 men were rescued. There are other coal mines in the vicinity where explosions killed men but this was the largest. Alberta has opened up this area to mining again, so the story of coal mine fatalities hasn’t ended for Alberta yet. There will be more to come.
There will be other victims besides miners. Besides the towns that suffer from the blasting noise and dust, some ranches depend on the Mount Livingstone Range like John Smith and Laura Laing do. Their story was featured in Canadian Cattlemen in July 2020. The Mount Livingstone Range supports many ranches that will be devastated as coal mining continues. The type of mining Benga Mining will do is called mountain top removal that opens the area up to open pit mining.
The run-off tailings from these mines get held in ponds, treated to some and released back into the environment. This contains various heavy metals mixed with selenium. Selenium is toxic to birds, fish and humans in large quantities. Releasing this type of chemical into the environment will eventually leech into the waterways. There have been a lot of attempts by various companies employing different methods to filter and extract the selenium, and regardless of the success they claim to have achieved, they have all failed.
According to Yale University, “in humans, chronic exposure to high selenium concentrations can cause nausea, fatigue, skin lesions, and neurological disorders. In other animals, high levels of the element have been shown to cause liver damage, paralysis, and even death. In the waterways it leeches into, it bioaccumulates in fish and plants, meaning the concentration keeps becoming more toxic to its host. It will kill the fish and deplete the resources altogether. Larger animals like cattle have become infected and gotten sick so it’s very important to monitor any water supply where animals or birds will have access to.
One of the biggest selenium contamination issues in the world is taking place in the Elk River’s tributaries to waters downstream that cross into the United States. Tech Resources has a number of metallurgical coal mines operating just inside the border of British Columbia in roughly the same area as the Grassy Mountain mine will be. The issues they are facing with international lawsuits and million dollar fines will be echoed by Alberta’s Coal mine. See the environmental hazard assessment of Benga Mining’s proposed Grassy Mountain Coal Project.
A. Dennis Lemly who authored the report, said:
It’s not that there is a lack of regulations promulgated under the statutory authority of government, there is a lack of enforcement of those statutory laws by government. Today, with the large body of scientific information and case study evidence available demonstrating the selenium threat from coal mining in Alberta and elsewhere, there is no longer plausible deniability. There is no legitimate basis for the claim “we didn’t know better”, either on the part of the mining industry or the regulatory community in which it operates.
Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Jonathan Wilkinson, will do a federal impact assessment. The federal government was prepared to let this slide. They are aware of the environmental impact this project will have on the area and that the selenium being released into the waterways will continue to contaminate the area for decades after the mine has closed. But this has never stopped the approval of a coal mine so it isn’t likely this time.
Selenium leeching into the Oldman River may be a concern as it supplies 40% of the irrigated land in Alberta and the entire water supply for Lethbridge. It isn’t likely to cause any trouble in the near future but bioaccumulation means it could be a problem in the future and one that will be very hard to deal with. In Sparwood, BC selenium from Tech Resources has poisoned one of their wells. There were other private wells with much higher (13.5 micrograms per liter) than safe limits as well.
There isn’t a lot of safety information about how the mine and government will contain this toxic environment. Perhaps they will continue to turn their heads. You know, if you don’t see it, then it isn’t a problem.
Federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson tapped the brakes Thursday on the Vista coal mine expansion near Hinton with an announcement Ottawa will take a look at the environmental impact of the project after all.
In a report in the Globe and Mail, Mr. Wilkinson hinted he had concluded the mine’s owner — a subsidiary of Plano, Tex.-based Cline Group Inc. — may have been trying to pull a fast one by breaking its application to double or triple the output of the thermal coal mine into two parts. “That would lead me to be concerned that this is, perhaps, an exercise in project splitting for the purpose of avoiding a federal assessment,” the minister said.
So, according to the Globe, Mr. Wilkinson explained that Ottawa’s initial determination that no federal review would be needed was based on the first application alone, but with a second one submitted more recently its assessment had changed.
Ministry of the Environment, Johnathan Wilkinson, has been under a lot of pressure to order an environmental assessment of Vista Coal in Alberta. Forty-seven groups, including Alberta Environmental Network, Alberta Wilderness Association, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) and Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – Northern Alberta sent an open letter to the minister. Their letter is very clear, “Vista is already one of the largest thermal coal mines in Canada. The proposed expansion could almost triple its capacity to mine coal: the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel that is responsible for half the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and an estimated 800,000 early deaths each year from air pollution.”
David Suzuki, the environmental conscience of Canada, said:
Coal isn’t coming back, nor should it. From start to finish, it’s one of the most destructive energy sources. Extracting it often requires blasting away entire mountaintops, polluting air, water and soil. Burning it creates enormous amounts of deadly pollution, along with CO2 and methane emissions that drive global heating.
The climate emergency demands that we use less energy and that we get what we need from cleaner sources. We shouldn’t be using 19th century fuels in the 21st
Coalspur Mine (Operations) Ltd. proposes the Vista Coal Underground Mine Project and the Vista Coal Mine Phase II Expansion Project, to expand the existing Vista Coal Mine Phase I Project; an open-pit thermal coal mine. The expansions would be located approximately 10 kilometres east of Hinton, Alberta.
The Minister previously considered the Vista Coal Mine Phase II Expansion Project for designation pursuant to the Impact Assessment Act, and on December 20, 2019, determined that the Project did not warrant designation. In light of the reasons provided below, the Minister is reconsidering that decision and has decided to designate the physical activities associated with the Vista Coal Mine Phase II Expansion Project along with the Vista Coal Underground Mine Project.
The Minister of Environment and Climate Change has considered the potential for the Projects to cause adverse effects within federal jurisdiction, adverse direct or incidental effects, public concern related to these effects, as well as adverse impacts on Aboriginal and Treaty rights. The Minister also considered the analysis of the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada.
The Minister has reached the decision that designation of the Projects is warranted for the following reasons:
Source: Minister’s Response – Canada.ca
Amid a global economic slowdown spurred by the spread of COVID-19, Alberta’s government is paving the way for a resurgence of coal mining in the province, a move some observers say threatens sensitive ecosystems that, until June, had been protected for decades.
This spring, the United Conservative Party government rolled back protections that had restricted exploration and prevented open-pit coal mining across parts of the Rocky Mountains and Foothills since 1976.
As well as providing key habitat for fish and wildlife, Morrison noted the region is also used for recreation and ranching.
“Once a mine is built, that is not an area that the public can access, it’s not an area that’s used for grazing or other uses,” she said.
“These mines are massive, mountaintop removal mines,” she said, noting there are concerns not only about the quantity of water used, but also risks of contamination.
In B.C., there have been long-standing concerns about selenium pollution downstream of Teck Resources’ Elk Valley coal mines.
Brittany Verbeek, AWA Conservation Specialist says in her article ‘Crowsnest Pass Coal Mining: A Déjà Vu to Avoid‘ “The Crowsnest Pass and the Elk Valley share the same geology. Selenium poisoning in Alberta’s southern watersheds may become a serious issue if coal development continues. This is further supported by ongoing concerns in west-central watersheds where coal mining is well established. The risks to our drinking water and our world-renowned trout streams must be recognized.”
In British Columbia where Tech Resources has coal mines close to this area, selenium poisoning has transcended the border and is now an international problem. We may be facing the same issue.