Pristine Alberta lake contaminated by dust from mountaintop coal mines: study
Global News
The paper, published last week in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, concludes that it's crucial to consider more than just downstream effects from such mines.
New Alberta government research has found windblown dust from mountaintop removal coal mines has polluted a pristine alpine lake to the point where its waters are as contaminated as lakes downwind from the oilsands.
The paper, published last week in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, concludes that it’s crucial to consider more than just downstream effects from such mines.
“It is highly likely that our findings extend to other mountaintop mining operations with large fugitive dust emissions,” the paper says. “Permitting of existing mines and approval of new mines should consider and have mitigation plans for broader atmospheric impacts.”
The paper, written by two senior scientists in Alberta Environment and Protected Areas, comes as the province’s United Conservative government ponders whether to retain a ministerial order protecting Alberta’s Rocky Mountains from proposed mines that would remove summits to create open pits and expose coal seams.
The province’s new energy minister, Peter Guthrie, has not responded to questions from The Canadian Press on the issue.
The paper examines Window Mountain Lake, a small, remote alpine lake in southern Alberta accessible only on foot just across the continental divide from coal mines in British Columbia’s Elk Valley. The lake is unconnected to the coal-mining area by any water body, nor does it have coal deposits.
The scientists took a sediment sample from the lake that contains layers from before 1850.
They analyzed the layers for chemicals associated with coal, such as polycyclic aromatic compounds and selenium. The former are known carcinogens and the latter is toxic to fish.
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