Water for Coal Developments: Where Will It Come From?
Water in the South Saskatchewan River Basin (SSRB) – and especially within the Oldman River Basin – is in short supply.
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Water for Coal Developments: Where Will It Come From?
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Photo by Phil Whitehouse (CC BY 2.0)
The Government of Alberta (GoA) is hell-bent on facilitating the development of new coal mines in the Province. To that end, it purported to rescind the long-standing Coal Development Policy (CDP) of 1976 effective June 1, 2020. The CDP prevented development of coal resources in Category I lands on the eastern slopes of the Rockies and only permitted the development of new underground mines (rather than open-pit mines) in Category II lands (see Figure 1, below, also available here).
An application for judicial review of the decision to rescind the CDP is pending: Blades et al v Alberta.
Meanwhile, several new coal mining projects are at various stages of review. These projects include Riversdale/Benga’s Grassy Mountain Project currently under review by a joint review panel of the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada and the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), Montem’s Tent Mountain Mine, Atrum’s Elan and Isolation Mines, and the Cabin Ridge Coal Project Ltd. (for further details see Oldman Watershed Council, Coal Mining in the Oldman Watershed, July 30, 2020).
These mines will all require approvals under the Coal Conservation Act, RSA 2000, c C-17 and other regulatory statutes, but they will also require something else – water. And water in the South Saskatchewan River Basin (SSRB) – and especially within the Oldman River Basin – is in short supply. Indeed, the SSRB (with the exception of the Red Deer Basin) has long been considered to be over-allocated in terms of licensed appropriations and accordingly it (outside the Red Deer Basin) has been closed to new licence applications since 2007 (with some exceptions discussed below). In closing the basin, the GoA was giving effect to the terms of the approved Water Management Plan for the South Saskatchewan River Basin (SSRB WMP).
Source: Water for Coal Developments: Where Will It Come From? |
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- Historic Alberta coal community wrestles with plans for new mining
- Grassy Mountain Coal Project Public Hearings to begin on October 27, 2020
- Saying no to a coal comeback: The Vista coal mine
- Selenium’s coal mining impact on the environment
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- Selenium’s coal mining impact on the environment
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Proposed coal mine will ‘decapitate’ Grassy Mountain in southern Alberta
Letters from Treaty 7, which represents mainly Blackfoot bands in southern Alberta, welcome the Grassy Mountain Coal Project, along with Métis communities in the southern part of the province.
This shocked Calf Robe, who said she only recently learned about the open-pit mine and a public regulatory hearing underway by a joint provincial-federal review panel.
“No community-level consultation has been done on the Blood Tribe,” she said, “and, as far as I know, has not been done with any of the communities in Treaty 7.
“So those letters of support that were issued were issued without community-level consultation in any of these communities.”
Benga Mining Ltd.
Calf Robe wants to stop the mine proposed by Benga Mining Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Australian coal development company Riversdale Resources.
Source: Proposed coal mine will ‘decapitate’ Grassy Mountain in southern Alberta
Related
Elk Valley, British Columbia
Other content on the forum may be of interest.
- Selenium’s coal mining impact on the environment
- Short video on poisoned water from coal mining on the eastern slopes
- (Video) Coal Valley: The story of B.C.’s quiet water contamination crisis
- Does Alberta Need More Coal Mines?
Alberta: Coal Hard Truth: The Future of Alberta’s Rocky Mountain
On June 1, 2020, the Government of Alberta rescinded the provincial Coal Policy. This policy was created in 1976 to restrict open pit coal mining and coal exploration in the most environmentally sensitive areas in the Rocky Mountains. This decision came on the heels of another government decision in March 2020 to remove protections on 175 parks and recreation areas.
On November 18, join the Red Deer Chapter of the Council of Canadians, a concerned resident and Katie Morrison of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Association (CPAWS) for an online discussion about the future of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains and how to protect them from the Alberta Government’s regressive decisions around the Coal Policy.
November 18, 2020, 7:00 p.m. Mountain Time
Register for this Zoom Webinar
Source: Alberta: Coal Hard Truth: The Future of Alberta’s Rocky Mountain | The Council of Canadians
Historic Alberta coal community wrestles with plans for new mining
Grassy Mountain
Selenium leaching has been linked to mass deaths of Westslope cutthroat trout and has sparked disputes with U.S. officials concerned about the pollution flowing over the border into Montana and Idaho.
Riversdale says Grassy Mountain will be different.
Gary Houston, the company’s vice-president of external affairs of Riversdale Resources, says the project north of Blairmore was “specifically designed from the ground up to effectively capture and treat selenium in water sources.”
As conservation director with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Association’s southern Alberta branch, Katie Morrison worries about the water in particular.
For years, the B.C. mines leached selenium into streams and rivers, despite efforts by mining giant Teck to control the pollution. Selenium is an element that can be toxic in large amounts and it has been routinely detected at levels well above guidelines in waterways downstream of the B.C. mines.
She says the mitigations the company has proposed are “really new” and “fairly untested at the scale of a mine.”
“When we look at the history of coal mining, both just over the border in the Elk Valley, as well as other places in North America, there has actually never been a case where the mine has successfully been able to mitigate and control selenium release,” she said.
“So best laid-plans and intentions by the companies to mitigate, but I don’t really have any confidence that things won’t go wrong.”
Some residents of historic Crowsnest Pass, Alta., hope a new mining opportunity will lift up their town’s economy. But others fear negative consequences from open-pit mining in a postcard setting tucked at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.
Source: Historic Alberta coal community wrestles with plans for new mining | CBC News
Related
- Grassy Mountain Coal Project Public Hearings to begin on October 27, 2020
- Saying no to a coal comeback: The Vista coal mine
- Selenium’s coal mining impact on the environment
- Mountaintop coal mine hearings to begin amidst fears of pollution, development rush