| Montreal, 12/08/2003 – The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) today released a factual record on allegations that Canada is failing to effectively enforce the federal Fisheries Act in regard to acid rock drainage (ARD) from the abandoned Britannia copper mine in British Columbia. The Britannia Mine, which rises above Howe Sound on the road from Vancouver to Whistler, has been called the worst point source of metals pollution in North America. The CEC Council authorized the public release of this and two other factual records on 7 August 2003.
Britannia operated from 1904-1974. At one time, it was the largest copper mine in the British Empire. It is one of forty-two known or potentially acid generating mines in British Columbia identified by Sierra Legal Defence Fund (SLDF) in a submission filed with the CEC in 1998. SLDF claims that Environment Canada is failing to lay charges for Fisheries Act violations caused by ARD at operating and closed mines throughout the province, and that this amounts to a systemic failure to enforce the Fisheries Act prohibition on depositing deleterious substances into fish-bearing waters.
ARD results when sulfide-bearing rock is exposed to air and water, creating sulfuric acid. The sulfuric acid dissolves the metals in the surrounding rock, creating drainage that is acidic, laden with metals, and acutely lethal to fish. After decades of mining, Britannia has 210km of abandoned mine shafts. Rain and snowmelt enter open pits and flush through these tunnels, turning acidic along the way. The ARD is channeled to a submerged outfall and discharged, untreated, into Howe Sound, at an average rate of 214 litres per second.
The final factual record for submission SEM-98-004 (BC Mining) contains facts relevant to a consideration of whether Canada is failing to effectively enforce s. 36(3) of the Fisheries Act in regard to the Britannia Mine. The factual record draws no conclusion regarding whether Canada is failing to effectively enforce s. 36(3).
At Britannia, there are ongoing discharges of large volumes of ARD into the fish-bearing waters of Howe Sound. Environment Canada has taken no enforcement action against Britannia Mines and Reclamation Corp. (formerly Copper Beach Estates Ltd.), the mine's owner since 1979. The federal government asserts that prosecution has not been and is not a viable option. Federal efforts at Britannia have centered on studying impacts of Britannia effluent on marine life in Howe Sound, finding ways to treat the effluent, and lending technical assistance to provincial authorities. The province settled with past owners for $30M in early 2001. Under a provincial clean-up plan, expected to cost the province an additional $45M or more, an effluent treatment plant is scheduled to start operating at the mine by June 2004. Technical and legal issues around plant siting, plant ownership, and sludge disposal have held up the process for tendering bids for plant construction.
This is the eighth factual record prepared by the CEC Secretariat. Factual records provide information that may assist submitters, a NAFTA country, and other interested members of the public in taking any action they deem appropriate in regard to the matters addressed.
The CEC was established by the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States to address regional environmental concerns, help prevent potential trade and environmental conflicts, and to promote the effective enforcement of environmental law.
For further information, including the Secretariat's determination on this submission, please consult: <http://www.cec.org/citizen/>. |
