Mining Waste Flows Into Rivers

British Columbia mining waste pond breach - drinking waterunpotablefor hundreds

Hundreds of people in British Columbia can't use their water after more than a billion gallons of mining waste spilled into rivers and creeks in the province's Cariboo region.

A breach in a tailings pond from the open-pit Mount Polley copper and gold mine sent five million cubic meters (1.3 billion gallons) ofslurrygushing into Hazeltine Creek in B.C. That's the equivalent of 2,000 Olympic swimming pools of waste, theCBC reports. Tailings ponds from mineral mines store a mix of water,chemicalsand ground-up minerals left over from mining operations.

The flow of the mining waste, which cancontainthings like arsenic, mercury, and sulfur, uprooted trees on its way to the creek and forced a water ban for about 300 people who live in the region. That numbercould grow, as authorities determine just how far the waste has traveled. The cause of the breach is stillunknown.

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So far, water-use bans have been issued for the town of Likely and for people living near Polley Lake, Quesnel Lake, Hazeltine Creek (which flows into Quesnel Lake), and Cariboo Creek, as well as theQuesnel and Cariboo River systems. Authorities so far haven't issued water bans for the Fraser River — B.C.'s longest river — which is linked to the Quesnel River, (which flows from Quesnel Lake) saying it's not yet clear whether the effluent has made it to the waterway.

"What we know so far is that debris from the tailings pond backed up a little into Polley Lake, which absorbed some of the flow, but the majority of it went down into the Hazeltine Creek," Al Richmond, chairman of the Cariboo Regional Districttold the Vancouver Sun. "The creek (used to be) four feet wide. Now it's 150 feet wide."

Source: Think Progress

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Taxonomy

• Sludge Separation
• Pollution