Lakes across Canada to be used as toxic dump sites

by Rob Peters | June 16, 2008 at 03:15 pm | 584 views | 12 comments | 40 recommendations

Mining companies may soon have 16 Canadian lakes at their disposal, despite a Fisheries Act that makes it illegal to pollute fish-bearing waters. A very disturbing trend.

CBC News has learned that 16 Canadian lakes are slated to be officially but quietly "reclassified" as toxic dump sites for mines. The lakes include prime wilderness fishing lakes from B.C. to Newfoundland.

Environmentalists say the process amounts to a "hidden subsidy" to mining companies, allowing them to get around laws against the destruction of fish habitat.

Under the Fisheries Act, it's illegal to put harmful substances into fish-bearing waters. But, under a little-known subsection known as Schedule Two of the mining effluent regulations, federal bureaucrats can redefine lakes as "tailings impoundment areas."

That means mining companies don't need to build containment ponds for toxic mine tailings.

Coumans said the procedure amounts to a subsidy to the industry and enables mines to get around the Fisheries Act.

"What Canadians need to know is that this year, from March 2008 to March of 2009, eight lakes are going to be subject to being put on Schedule Two, which is just about every mine that is going ahead this year is looking around, looking for the nearest lake to dump its waste into.”

A local environmentalist who attended the Long Harbour meeting, Chad Griffiths, said of Sandy Pond: “It's easy enough to consider just one lake as just one lake, as a needed sacrifice, right? But it's not one lake … It's a trend. It's an open season on Canadian water.”

No surprise really eh? The more we learn about what's killing us, the more short-term greed wins out anyway.

Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff. That's awful! What happened to sustainability? They should pursue ways of making the tailings more eco-friendly before allowing them to be dumped into the lakes.

Are we still thinking that money don't buy everything?

this has to be stopped. please join the facebook group to be heard.

Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff. That is going to be political suicide for any political party to allow this. Lawsuits would abound against these companies. Thanks for bringing this to our attention, lets hope it is a pipedream Rob.

If it turns out to be true, I know a lot of First Nations who will have every politicians testicles for breakfast and feed them to the crows

I hope something can be done about this in time.

Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff.

We (meaning native peoples) have been fighting this fight for generations now. Here's something we got going in 2000.

No one would quite believe--other than the individual little communities, mostly isolated, who went through it--what kind of stuff was dumped into Lake Superior.

Because now is the time when the exploration and commodities sector really needs a helping hand.

Rob Peters, I like this story. It's good stuff.

In the words of Henry Kissinger:

"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer."

The following is my letter to my MP on this issue. Go ahead and write your MP NOW!

June 16, 2008<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Honourable John Baird

2249 Carling Ave, Suite 418
Ottawa, ON K2B 7E9

Dear John Baird

I have never written to my MP, but I have never been more disgusted in the actions of the federal government. I am very angry to hear about Schedule Two of the Fisheries Act that will allow mining corporations to use our lakes and rivers as toxic waste dumps.

I am fortunate that you are my MP and the Environment Minister, and I truly expect and hope that you will be able to do something about Schedule Two of the Fisheries Act.

If the “reclassification” of 16 Canadian lakes as “tailing impoundment areas” goes through, it will be a sad day in Canada and it will be difficult to explain to my 4 year old son that our government said okay to the mining corporations and ignored the common good. It seems very obvious to me—as well as a lot of 5th graders I’m sure—that the result would be permanent destruction of our pristine lakes and pollution downstream that may span the entire hydrologic cycle.

Are you going to put extra bucks into the hands of the mining corporations—who we know could afford to use present technologies to recycle their waste—or consider the health of Canadians? We already know that the expense of such contamination will be far more than the expense to the mining companies to responsibly deal with their waste.

It seems insane to me that mining companies would have the nerve to try to “cut corners” like this and expect the public to accept it. It seems even more insane to think that our federal government would allow this to happen. When will our government stand up and put a real value on our public assets, our lakes, our ecosystems, instead of just offering them up at no cost to mining companies.

I am proud that our government has recently admitted the full spectrum of past wrongdoings by government to First Nations, Inuit, and Metis people of Canada. Similarly, will our government admit that it has allowed mining companies to pollute our waters to present day without paying for reclamation after knowledge of the ill effects and new research and technology has offered viable alternatives?

The grip that mining companies must have had on past government is alarming, and the claim that pollution of lakes and rivers is job creation is ridiculous. To allow these activities by mining companies to continue is to adopt primitive and irresponsible practices, ignore the best interest of every Canadian, and allow mining companies to reap more profit.

Will you seek to amend or remove Schedule Two of the Fisheries Act and avoid this destruction of our environment and well being?

Eagerly awaiting some positive action steps,

Tricia