Environmental News 25.11.13 Part I: Leaking Mining Waste Dirties Canadian River – Sign of Things to Come? Late in October, coal water waste entered Canada’s Athabasca River via a containment pond and started making its way to Lake Athabasca. En route the slurry has contaminated the drinking water of a number of communities including Fort McMurray, Fort Mackay and the Athabasca First Nation. The waste came from the closed Obed Mountain coal mine, owned by Sherritt International and, it is estimated that 670 million litres of waste water containing coal dust, other sediments and contaminants, like mercury, poured into the river. Communities have been advised not to draw drinking water from the river as the plume goes by and to not allow livestock to drink from the river. The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in northern Alberta remain concerned, however, ‘How do we tell caribou and moose and bison not to drink from the river system?’ ” said First Nation’s Eriel Deranger. She also said that some community members live in cabins that are not serviced by the municipality, and rely on their own treatment systems for clean water. Alberta Environment spokeswoman Jessica Potter said testing has shown the slurry has been dissipating as it moves downstream, and David Schindler, a world-renowned aquatics expert, said it’s unlikely many compounds from the spill will be detectable as far away as Lake Athabasca. “I would think the concern would be upstream, closer to where things entered the river and in depositional areas for sediment,” he said. “I don’t think the toxic levels are high enough that it’s a huge concern, with the exception of mercury.” Schindler said this spill should be a “wake-up” call about the risks of containment ponds near a river system. “This is a critical time of the year, if we have a big spill now, it will travel under ice and could go a very long way,” he said. “(This spill) is not a surprising thing, but we just keep on doing this. My guess is that pond is in no worse shape than other ponds ... there are so many factors that affect the integrity of these dykes.” edmontonjournal/news/Wood+Buffalo+taking+chances+drinking+water+coal+slurry/9205718/story.html
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 21:54:10 +0000
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