Editor,
Sometimes public pressure does have some effect.
As we pointed out in our last opinion letter in The Interior News (Feb. 15, 2018), Allegiance Coal, the Australian company that owns the Telkwa Coal open pit mine proposal, has repeatedly stated over the last 12 months that it plans to initiate operations at a level just below the B.C. Environmental Assessment Act’s threshold of 250,000 tonnes per year. At the same time, it has promoted its plan to investors and others as including a phased build-up that would reach as high as 1.75 million tonnes per year. We believed that the sub-250,000 tonne figure was an attempt to avoid the B.C. Environmental Assessment Act requirements. Allegiance actually seemed to state as much in its investor communications saying it wanted to take advantage of the more “defined” process available through the Mines Act.
Given the sensitivity of the location of the proposed mine near the confluence of the Bulkley and Telkwa Rivers and the Village of Telkwa, as well as the known threats posed by the potential for acid rock drainage from this mine, we asked that the provincial government exercise its discretion to require a full environmental assessment not withstanding Allegiance’s claims about the initial size of the mine.
As recently as the open house that occurred in Telkwa on May 23, Allegiance continued to insist that it planned to start operations at the below 250,000 tonne level and that it therefore did not need a full EA. During this time, many people wrote letters to the Ministry of the Environment asking that this effort to avoid its requirements be rejected.
Now, Allegiance has decided to give up this pretext due to what it terms “stakeholder” concerns. Allegiance is now openly acknowledging that it will start production at a much higher level, currently identified as 750,000 tonnes per year.
At the same time, despite its previously identified ultimate target of 1.5-1.75 million tonnes per year, Allegiance’s currently stated production objective will be below the 1,000,000 tonne threshold for a federally required Environmental Assessment (Allegiance is careful to point this out to the investor community). Thus, while the proclaimed increased size of the project will mean the proposal will be subject to provincial environmental assessment, it still won’t trigger a federal EA and we are concerned that federal interests like fisheries may not be fully examined
In any event, this appears to us to be a victory for those who want to make sure that if this mine is approved, there is a full analysis of and public consultation about its significant risks. These risks include those posed to our water through acid rock drainage and related leaching of heavy metals that are toxic to fish, to our air, to wildlife including the caribou recovery effort, and to Telkwa and the surrounding Bulkley Valley communities.
Jay Gilden
For What Matters in our Valley
