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Today's Local News: What happens when a mine has a catastrophic failure into a large river?

4K views 70 replies 31 participants last post by  psycho 
#1 ·
#45 ·
The only thing I cited as a fact, was the mines own disclosure in their annual report. That was taken directly from one of the links, I think the CBC News one.

Being concerned and trying to prevent this sort of thing from happening again isn't jumping to conclusions.

It is very simply proactive thinking.

Being concerned about anything entering any watershed other than rain or snow melt isn't jumping to conclusions either.

Being as protective of the public resource as I can is a responsibility I share with everyone. People are most certainly free to choose different levels of involvement.
 
#49 ·
Red Arch, formulate your own passive opinion, good on you.
For heavens sakes, that tailing pond dumped a metric butt ton of waste products into the ecosystem. Not trace amounts like what may naturally occur. Massive quantities...this was not some drunk pissing in the river.
 
#50 ·
The food web of Quesnel Lake is going to be effected for a very long time because of this ecological disaster if there is no staunching of the flow of sediments. They disperse on the gravel beaches and deep crags.

Quesnel Lake is a natural wonder and is 2000 feet deep in places, very little is know about its depths other than there is most likely heavy sediments from hydraulic mining down deep. The whole area was sluiced heavily in starting 1900 by the Consolidated Cariboo Mining Co. They created Polley Lake and Bootjack Lake with dams to send enough water at high head pressure over many miles to hydraulic mine an ancient river channel. This activity sent placer mining sediments with less heavy metal content all the way down the Quesnel River and down the Fraser during the Sockeye and Chinook migrations which almost wiped out the fish runs. They were just starting to recover then this happens. So you can understand why the Natives of the area are getting their back up about this, they know understand our environmental stupidity and have dealt with it constantly for very many years.

The damage from this current assault on the environment could be over a very long period of time. The toxic sediments that disperse into deeper water habitat is going to effect the reproductive capacity of Salvelinus namaycush (Lake Trout) and Salvelinus confluentus (Bull Trout). Which spawn in rock crags deeper than other fish.

It is entirely possible that there will be explosions of Ptychocheilus oregonensis (Northern Pikeminnow) and other course fish that they predate upon. We have already seen almost extinction level reductions of local populations of Bull Trout in other rivers and lakes in BC. and in these places the Northern Pikeminnow populations have exploded because most piscivorous large Rainbow Trout do not predated on them for some reason which is not well understood. But the mature Northern Pikeminnow certainly does predate upon Rainbow Trout and other species fry.

The beach spawning Sockeye and Kokanee will be effected the most but how this will effect the O. mykiss (rainbow) populations is debatable.

BUT because the mature rainbow in Quesnel Lake are very piscivorous and predate largely upon sculpin, sockeye, and kokanee fry, the effects on these river spawners will be not seen as much until they start to starve. Which is what happens in the off years on the Adams Lake and Adams river system when the sockeye run is low. More over the fry populations might also begin to starve if the aquatic insect and other critter populations of the lake are seriously effected.

In short the outlook is very grim for sport fishing and the large food fishery on this system if the habitat is destroyed by this mine dam break.
 
#52 ·
I'm so sorry for those who live up there and another beautiful place tainted with toxicity. So sad. I don't know why they aren't required to make all concrete dams instead of these land berms that often end in events like this. Those contaminants are going to be around a long time. I would be worried about all those who live there and well contamination for quite some time, but I'm just a carpenter and have watched Erin Brockovich a couple to many times.
 
#57 ·
When I first read this, that was my reaction. The Canadians are just getting a little taste of their own medicine.
 
#60 ·
We Americans often cite the Mining Act of 1872 as the bane of trashing our resources... anyone know if the Canadians suffer a similar challenge? Sadly, events like these are the result of complete disregard to any collateral damage in the quest for money.
 
#61 ·
We just have governments that believe in getting rid of what the call "red tape ' most sane people cal it regulations as to what mines and others who wish to make money should do to protect the publics land. It is coming out now that they just kept building that retaining dike higher and not wider. So it was going to fail sooner or later. Prioduction ahead of any concerns for the structural integrity of that reservoir.:mad:

 
#63 ·
I'm heartbroken for the watersheds, fish/wildlife, and people effected downstream.
But my previous comment stems from being jaded from growing up on the Columbia river, just downstream from all the shit being dumped into the river daily in Canada. I've never been able to eat any fish, or swim for fear of weird rashes. Even where I live now, over one hundred miles away on the same stretch of river, you don't want to eat much fish.
 
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#65 ·
I find it interesting that the canadians are all up in arms about this contamination, what about the toxic mine waste they have for years dumped into lake roosevelt !
Canadian mining companies have poisoned people I work with from eating more than a few fish a month. Mercury poisoning. I don't think Canada is up on environmental disasters nor do they care. My back yard the Columbia River is proof of stupidity. Cancers showing up, illnesses that usually don't occur are all reasons for this stupidity. America may not be perfect....but Canada sure likes to poison. Remember, its not just the fish, its the birds and anything eating aquatics or plant life are affected, along with our fish. Remember, they are wanting to drill up the Methow too. Stupid is as stupid does.
 
#66 ·
The problem is that our politicians just like American ones are easily bought. Huge sums dumped into their election campaigns just like south of the border. Large corporations do not have morals or ethics, the bottom line is the level used to decide wether they do anything that saves the environment. If the laws are to hard on the bottom line they threaten to go offshore or they buy politicians to make sure that the laws are not enforced too strictly. The majority of people are easily bought by the promise of lower taxes that never seem to arrive. Costs to corporations in BC have dropped a great deal since our present government was elected , I believe that we now have three mines inspectors for the whole province. The only reason that Teck-Cominco's feet were burned was because of the cross border pollution that they caused, if it had been only in Canada it would have been business as usual.
 
#67 ·
We just have governments that believe in getting rid of what the call "red tape ' most sane people cal it regulations as to what mines and others who wish to make money should do to protect the publics land. It is coming out now that they just kept building that retaining dike higher and not wider. So it was going to fail sooner or later. Prioduction ahead of any concerns for the structural integrity of that reservoir.:mad:

Get a rope.
 
#70 ·
Welcome Eric, thanks for that detailed insight.
Thank you.

Only time will tell how this disaster will effect Quesnel Lake. For one, until an assay of sediment layers is done over time the toxic effects on the aquatic insect habit of the food web will be very hard to quantify.

If the habitat for char reproduction is seriously effected then how this will impact the predator prey relationship balance of the lake is a serious question that begs answers. None of these possible consequences are currently being discussed in British Columbia.

Instead many so called anglers in BC are more concerned about how this will immediately effect their annual sockeye floss snagging fishery on the Fraser.

The answer to their short sighted and purely selfish concerns is; not much. The sockeye that will be effected immediately are only the ones that beach spawn in the gravel areas of what was Hazeltine Creek. The rest of the Quesnel Lake run will not be immediately effected.

I post this not to make light of the problem but to focus upon where the real concerns are. The areas below the spill near the outflow of Quesnel Lake is going to go out of balance for a long time and the loss of habitat could very well be substantial if the flow of sediments from the spill is not staunched immediately. The only remedial action that makes any sense is to completely divert all runoff away from the muck pile slide that once was Hazeltine Creek.

(caution humor to follow)
{HUMOR}
In short Hazeltine Creek is deceased, it is a dead creek, it is pining for the fiords of Quesnel Lake, it is an ex-creek! And Polley Lake is just as dead it was pinned to the hill side long ago with a dam so that water from it could be used by the mining industry and fly fishermen could catch little planted rainbow trout. Same as Bootjack and many other lakes that the mining and ranching industry created in the Cariboo of BC Canada.:rolleyes:

Thus the distraction away from the real damage done by the enterprise is no surprise here. Most so called sport fishermen in BC are as easily fooled as a winter run steelhead taking a swung leaded chicken intruder or a drift plug IMO.
{/HUMOR}

The real concern is for how this will upset the large predator populations of Quesnel Lake and will there be explosions of trash fish populations, like we have seen elsewhere when the large predator fish have been eliminated from the equation.
 
#71 ·
One of the best posts so far on this disaster. Plus the gentleman is dead on about BC fishermen, even the fly fishermen that I associate with do not seem overly concerned about it. I just want to put all those responsible into Hazeltine Creek with shovels and buckets and they stay there until it is all cleaned up. Come out of the creek without permission and you get fifty lashes and thrown back. Second offense of leaving the creek it is the death penalty applied on the spot. I would start with our Premier and the owner from Alberta and work my way down the food chain until I ran out of management.
 
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