Residents worry about waterways 10 years after Mount Polley spill
CBC
The local fire department was on the line when Doug Watt reached for his phone the morning of Aug. 4, 2014.
"The lady at fire and rescue said that there's been an accident at the mine, the dam is broken, it's pouring into the lake, nobody knows what's happening so get your boat out of the water, don't drink the water and be prepared to evacuate because you don't know whether the lake is going to flood or not," he recalled.
After he got off the phone with the fire department, Watt stepped outside and heard the roar of the dam breach about seven kilometres away from his home in Likely, B.C.
"It was quite disconcerting," he said.
The tailings dam at the Mount Polley mine, about 231 kilometres north of Kamloops, B.C., failed that day, sending toxic mine waste into nearby lakes and streams. It is widely regarded as one of the worst — if not the worst — mine disasters in Canadian history.
Mount Polley mine records filed with Environment Canada reported that hundreds of tonnes of arsenic, lead, copper and nickel flowed out in the sludge.
On the 10-year anniversary of the spill, residents worry not enough has been done to remediate the site and prevent future disasters.
Researcher Phil Owens said about 25 million cubic metres of tailings material ended up in Hazeltine Creek and Quesnel Lake — the equivalent of 10,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, he said.
And most of that is still sitting at the bottom of the lake, researchers have found.
"This was an instantaneous catastrophic failure ... and yet still 10 years later, we're still picking up levels of metals like copper flowing down Quesnel River and getting into the water column of the lake," he said. "That is quite surprising."
Copper, he added, has been detected in zooplankton, a key food source for salmon and trout in the river.
"I would be concerned about eating the fish, particularly those fish that live in the system for a long time because it's now been 10 years," Owens said.
Watt, who used to work in mining, said that while he still supports the industry, he believes the environment needs to be the top priority.
"It's certainly opened my eyes to the immediate effect that a mine can have locally," he said.
