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Britannia cleanup still a long ways from being done

Drinking water quality, heavy metal contamination and outflow into Howe Sound were some of the concerns of about 50 residents of Britannia Beach who attended a public meeting at the Britannia Community Centre on Thursday, Feb.
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Drinking water quality, heavy metal contamination and outflow into Howe Sound were some of the concerns of about 50 residents of Britannia Beach who attended a public meeting at the Britannia Community Centre on Thursday, Feb. 7, to listen to an update on a comprehensive remediation project for the Britannia copper mine.

Illustrated by slides depicting stages of the project, from a worker in water up to his waist in one of the tunnels to a breakdown of assessments underway, project manager Gerry O’Hara reminded the audience that 300 kilograms of both copper and zinc enter Howe Sound each day. An additional 90 kilograms enters the Sound through ground water.

"The earliest we could hope to have the water treatment plant operating would be sometime towards the end of 2003," O’Hara said.

The remediation project, which began last August, is being financed by a $30 million trust fund put up by previous owners of the mine and administered by the provincial government. The project includes neutralizing contaminated water from the mine with lime in an external pilot treatment plant before discharging into Howe Sound.

"The water is acidic with a PH of around three to three and a half," O’Hara explained. "We basically add lime which neutralizes the water, bringing it to a normal PH of about seven."

The project includes a Safety Investigation Program that considers non-destructive testing to ensure the pipes and valves in the mine are up to service. The original fittings were made of high quality stainless steel but after 20 to 25 years of being exposed to acidic water there could be some structural damage.

An assessment of existing discharge water arrangements also had to be done. Water flows from an existing plug along a channel in the 4,100 foot level (a measurement taken from the top of Jane Basin) for several hundred metres and then flows down a vertical tunnel which joins the 4,100 to the 4,150 level. From the 4,150 Level the water flows into a pipe and out to sea.

"The drainage improvements include cleaning out the channel in the 4,100 level because there had been a bit of debris in the tunnel," O’Hara says. "There were a lot of old timbers in there that were taken out to keep the tunnel safe."

One of the questions asked concerned options for water treatment. At this point many people at the meeting began taking notes.

O’Hara explained that calcium carbonate could be used to neutralize acidic waters but this would be a temporary solution.

"The problem we’ve got at this particular site is the dilapidation of the existing drainage system from the 4,150 level out to sea," O’Hara said. "So at the moment the recommendation is not to proceed with any interim treatment because it is suspected the system is dilapidated."

Risk assessment on site, the threat to human health and flood risk are part of the project. Workers looked at various sources of contaminants, pathways to receptors and the type of receptors that could receive those contaminants. The human health risk assessment looked at exposure to humans on the site. � "This could be kids ingesting soil with their fingers or breathing dust or workers on the site," O’Hara said.

The human health risk assessment considers exposure levels, the types of contaminants that are present, and the length of those exposure times and whether this would be acceptable in a risk fashion.

"Until more information is fed into the risk assessment that’s the best we can do at this stage," O’Hara says.

Flood risk assessment is a big part of the project. To date integration of the Squamish and Lillooet Regional Development community flood risk scope into the provincial plan has been completed. Next steps include a 4,100 level plug test this month, closing off the valves that let the water through the concrete plug and allowing the mine to start to fill with ground water.

"We’ll monitor how quickly the mine fills up with pressure gauges," O’Hara explains.

The test will assess the volume of water available for storage in the mine.

"Once you know that, you can size the water treatment plant," O’Hara says. "By knowing the amount of storage available, you know how much is available to balance out the peak flows."

Although representatives for the remediation project went into meticulous detail about the work being done many people at the public meeting remain concerned about the quality of their drinking water and the effect on children.

"Has there been any samples of our drinking water?" long time Britannia resident, Ron Falber, asked.

"Where does the out-flow pipe into Howe Sound end?" Another resident asked.

John Kus, an engineer with the project, answered that one by explaining that dye was put through the system to see where the out flow pipe exits.

"At the 30 metre depth dye was coming up," Kus said. "Divers went out to the 40 metre depth and couldn’t find the pipe."

There’s a possibility that some of the deep level pipe has been torn off by underwater slides.

"We don’t know," Kus said, "but we did see a dye leech at the 30 metre depth."

Additional concerns about heavy metals contamination were also addressed. One person in the audience said a miner told him he used to watch copper effluent drip on rail tracks in the tunnels and that over time holes were bored into the tracks.

"By neutralizing the water most of the other metals come out," O’Hara explained. "But certainly copper is among the most toxic."

Brenda Broughton, a resident of Lions Bay, applauded the work being done so far but asked in terms of the number of plug holes whether it is just at the 4,100 level or are other portals being plugged.

"No there’s no need to plug any other portals," O’Hara answered.

As the question period developed more people participated.

"Any long-term plans to stop acid drainage completely?" another resident asked.

"A drainage system is one possibility," O’Hara said.

But Ron Falber remained sceptical about how comprehensive the cleanup will be.

"People come in and do what they wish without a contingency plan," he remarked, voicing concern about more movement of water, slides, and cave-ins inside the mine.

"It seems like we’re going to plan all these things," he continued. "Are we thinking about what we’re going to do if water starts coming out of the 2700 portal? To plug one hole and hope it doesn’t plug up, I think is a little optimistic."

"The current risk assessment looks at work being done over the next three to five months," O’Hara continued. "The different failure modes are looked at; what happens if a plug blocks up, or if the valves remain open. The implications are looked at and a decision is made about whether something is high or low risk."

"How can we create something that has some sustainability?" Broughton asked.

The answer is a permanent water treatment plant. And the remedial work should lead to the optimal design of that treatment plant.

But Copper Beach Estates Ltd., a land owner in Britannia, does not approve of the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection’s remediation plan.

"It doesn’t address all of the problems," Brennan Lang, mine manager for Copper Beach Estates Ltd., says. "Thirty million (dollars) will get spent at Britannia Beach and anybody driving through in three or four years won’t notice any kind of difference. The water coming out of the mine will be treated but there’s no provisions for sealing up unsafe mine openings or re-vegetation."

CBEL has proposed a Stakeholders Sustainable Reclamation Plan which addresses all the mine reclamation issues at Britannia – not just water quality.

"One of the most important issues is how is this going to be paid for in the long term?" Lang asks. "There’s an estimate that the treatment plant will cost about $1 million a year. There has to be a way to pay for that. The government has a $30 million settlement but their estimate of the cleanup cost is $75 million. In other words they will burn through the money and get the treatment plant built in three years, then there will be no money to operate it."

CBEL has a plan by which the company can participate in paying for the cleanup and pay for the water treatment in perpetuity.

"We propose to do that through development of the land," Lang says.

The company is also proposing a plan to get the water plant in at least one year earlier than the government’s plan.

"We just have a tighter schedule," Lang said. "We had a scoping study carried out by an engineering firm in Vancouver and they’ve told us there’s sufficient information right now to go right to the detailed design and construction."

When asked how Britannia ranks with other sites, O’Hara acknowledged that the pollution at Britannia is a huge metal problem But he did add that the pollution is no more acute now than 20 years ago.

"It’s a small decrease over time in the leech of metals," he said.

The cleanup at the Britannia mine isn’t expected to end when the treatment plant for polluted water is up and running.

"How long do we have to treat this?" Kus asked. "Basically forever."