----- Original Message -----
From: Maggie Paquet
To: maggie paquet
Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2006 6:17 AM
Subject: Press Release, World Water Day, New Threats to Clean Water from Mining
Industry
Here is a press release about new threats to clean water from the North
American mining industry.
Media: please use, not embargoed.
Individuals and organisations: please send to your local media outlets today
(print & electronic)
Thanks,
Maggie
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
-- Mahatma Gandhi
Maggie Paquet
5232A Margaret Street
Port Alberni, BC V9Y 6J2
Ph: 250-723-8802
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Press Release For Immediate Release
March 21, 2006
New Threats to Clean Water from Mining Industry on the 14th Anniversary of
World Water Day
As the 14th anniversary of World Water Day dawns, new threats to clean water
are emerging from the North American mining industry. The international
observance of World Water Daybegun in 1993is an initiative that grew out of
the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in
Rio de Janeiro. On Wednesday, 22 March 2006, communities around the world will
again celebrate World Water Day.
Despite this, the mining industry has been pushing to relax laws that protect
water, fish, and wildlife in both the US and Canada. Several mining companies
are proposing to undermine existing laws to allow the dumping of mine wastes
and waste rock into fresh water bodiesincluding those that are important
habitat for fish, migratory waterfowl, and other species, some endangered. This
is a cheap and easy means of disposing of mine wastes.
Among the numerous Canadian mine proposals planning to dump waste into
fish-bearing waters are the Kemess North, Huckleberry, and Red Chris mines in
northern British Columbia, and Aur Resources Duck Pond mine in central
Newfoundland. US mines slated for freshwater disposal of mine wastes include
the Kensington mine in Alaska, currently under judicial review, and the Pebble
mine proposed for the near future in the Bristol Bay region, also in Alaska.
Several of these proposed mines will affect waterbodies in the traditional
territories of aboriginal communitiesmany already negatively affected by
historic mines and their wastes.
Before clean water regulations began taking effect in the 1970s and 80s,
underwater disposal of mine wastes was common all across North America, where
lakes were frequently used as unregulated tailings dumps for mines. Mine waste
disposal in near-shore marine areas also affects oceans, estuaries, and bays in
a number of countries around the world. Wherever it occurs, it is a very
controversial practice.
In the US and Canada, mining companies have lobbied strenuously, and are very
close to getting government rules changed in both countries that will allow
regulators to redefine water bodies as tailings impoundment areasor to
redefine waste as simple fillso companies can deposit mine wastes with
impunity.
At Alaskas Kensington mine, the Corps of Engineers (COE) has re-classified
mine waste from waste to fill and issued a permit allowing the disposal of
waste into a sub-alpine lake. This re-classification allows what was previously
prohibited to now occur, not because there has been any reduction in harm to
the environment or any increased effectiveness in treating mine wastes, but
simply because this waste disposal method is cheaper.
This is clearly a violation of the US Clean Water Act, said Kat Hall of the
Southeast Alaska Conservation Council. If the Kensington mine project is
allowed to fill Lower Slate Lake with mine waste, we have opened a floodgate
for similar projects throughout the US.
In Canada, the Metal Mining Effluent Regulation (MMER), a regulation under the
federal Fisheries Act, currently prevents the dumping of mine wastes into
fish-bearing waterbodies. Before the revised MMER came into effect, there were
many examples of freshwater mine tailings disposal in Canada, including lakes
in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland/Labrador. The MMER allows
only up to 15 mg per liter on average per month of total suspended solids (TSS)
discharge of mine waste into fish-bearing waters. When the MMER was revised in
2002, the government added the controversial Schedule 2. At the time,
Environment Canada said Schedule 2 would only be used to legalize historic
mines. If approved by Cabinet, however, it will allow any fish-bearing water
body in the country to be redefined as a tailings impoundment area. Schedule 2
was slipped in at the end of a very exhaustive ten-year review process. There
are now about half a dozen mine projects awaiting approval under Schedule 2 of
the Canadian MMER.
JP LaPlante, mining coordinator for the Takla Lake First Nation stated, Title
and rights decisions for First Nations must be made before the decision to fill
Amazay (Duncan) Lake with mine waste. The British Columbia government has
manipulated the environmental assessment and mine approval processes to keep
First Nations out of front-line decision-making on the fate of this important
cultural and subsistence resource for our band members.
Tribes and First Nations in the US and Canada stand to lose more of an already
impaired cultural and subsistence resource base, stated Robert Shimek, Mining
Projects Coordinator for the Bemidji MN-based Indigenous Environmental
Network.. As we celebrate World Water Day, I ask all citizens in both
countries to protest the efforts by mining companies, as well as some
government regulators, to undermine the intent of clean water laws across North
America. In the American West, mining companies have already contaminated about
40% of the watersheds. Clean water is a human right. Clean water sustains the
web of life we all rely on. We all have to step up to meet these new threats to
clean water from the mining industry.
An international coalition of concerned citizens is working to raise the
profile of this destructive practice and challenge the mining industry and
government efforts to weaken laws that protect our water, and our fish and
wildlife resources.
-30-
For more information please contact:
Kat Hall, Southeast Alaska Conservation Council (907) 586-6942
JP LaPlante, Takla Lake First Nation, 250-564-9321, ext 6
Robert Shimek, Indigenous Environmental Network, (218) 751-4967
Amy Crook, Center for Science in Public Participation, 250-721-3627
Maggie Paquet, CEN Mining Caucus, member MMER-MAG group, 250-723-8802
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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