WC134 JanFeb 2024 - Magazine - Page 20
FEATURE
MOUNT
POLLEY’S
LEGACY
Disaster a decade later
BY SAUL CHERNOS
Water is essential in mining, from extraction to waste disposal. Yet, it
also raises environmental risks, potentially spreading pollution from
mining sites to surrounding communities. In this first instalment in a
year-long series of articles that will explore the environmental legacy
of one of Canada’s most vibrant economic sectors and its often-complicated relationship with water, Saul Chernos looks at the failure of a
waste containment system at a British Columbia mine, and its ongoing
impact on the area’s ecosystem.
T’S BEEN NEARLY A DECADE since a tailings pond
dam burst at the Mount Polley copper, gold, and silver mine,
dispatching a slurry of mine waste and other debris into
neighbouring waterways. But has the event, widely viewed
as Canada’s most serious non-lethal mining disaster, had any
lasting impact?
Without question, mining and other resource extraction
industries are an age-old mainstay of economic activity in
Canada. As recently as 2021, Natural Resources Canada pegged
mineral production at $55.5 billion and estimated the mineral
sector as responsible, directly and indirectly, for five per cent of
Canada’s gross domestic product. Perhaps predictably, gold was
the top-ranked commodity at $13.7 billion, but some 200 mines
I
Saul Chernos
Saul Chernos is a freelance
writer for Water Canada.
20
WATER C AN ADA • JANUARY/ FEBRUARY 2024
This photo, taken from a helicopter
a couple of days after the spill
occurred, shows the empty tailings
pond in the background.
WAT E R C A N A D A . N E T
