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Light at the end of the tunnel

Britannia turning a corner as mine site remediation efforts continue "Would you like a glass of drinking water?" the waitress asked as, I took a window seat in a small café at Britannia Beach. I was slightly taken aback.

Britannia turning a corner as mine site remediation efforts continue

"Would you like a glass of drinking water?" the waitress asked as, I took a window seat in a small café at Britannia Beach.

I was slightly taken aback. As one of the most polluted land sites in North America Britannia Beach, a historical mining community near the head of Howe Sound, has not exactly been known for clean drinking water. But since funding became available for the Britannia Mine Remediation Project in May 2001 the reputation of the community has improved.

To get an idea of the scope of the cleanup project consider the level of work already completed. Although not directly connected with the drinking water supply, the water discharging from the mine is contaminated with copper and zinc. Much of the remediation work at the mine focuses on collecting, controlling and treating this water prior to discharging it into Howe Sound. Who will pay for the work has been one of the ongoing issues.

Thirty million dollars made available from companies that had mined Britannia since the 1930s is currently being spent on the remediation cleanup. An additional $45.9 million is available for remediation through the provincial government. The B.C. government is also looking at other options for funding.

"We intend to approach the federal government for a contribution," explains Brian Clarke, director of the Crown contaminated sites program in the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management. "The federal government operated the mine during both World Wars under a federal crown corporation and, we believe they should be making a contribution towards the remediation as well. That’s the main avenue we’ll be pursuing with respect to further funding."

Based on current technology the water treatment plant will have to run indefinitely. And the bottom line is to try and accomplish the cleanup in Britannia without dipping into public funds.

"We’ve recently made a decision to pursue a particular type of treatment plant to treat the acid rock drainage," Clarke continues. "We’re finalizing what our costs will be associated with that. The results will determine how much money in total needs to be spent."

Right now remediation efforts are concentrating on how much water can be stored in the mine and where sludge removed from the acid rock drainage can be stored.

A 25-year-old plug installed 400 metres into the mine from the 4100 portal was tested as part of the project.

"The plug is made of concrete and is about 27 feet thick from the face to the inside face," explains Peter Healy, a principle with SRK Consulting Canada Inc., a company in Vancouver that conducted hydrology and hydrogeology studies on the project.

A piezometer, an instrument that measures water pressure, was installed in the host rock to monitor groundwater pressure building up within the rock as pressure is increased behind the plug. To get a sense of how important this is take a quick look at the white pipes sticking out of the rock face next time you drive by the site. In a rock slope water pressure that builds up behind the face is relieved by drilling holes through the rock. Water percolating down from heights up to 90 metres above the highway may only be dripping out of the pipes stuck into these drill holes, but that’s enough to relieve the pressure inside the rock.

"If you’ve got a slope on a hillside and it’s not drained adequately, you get a head of water behind the point on the hillside that could be equivalent to the height of the slope," says Gerry O’Hara, project manager for the remediation project in Britannia.

"There’s two things," O’Hara continues. "It acts as a lubricant along joints and fissures in the bedding planes within the rock. It could also effectively act like a hydraulic jack and make the face less stable than it would be otherwise. In certain circumstances that can lead to a slope failure."

In the case of the plug installed in the 4100 portal, rock jacking could occur if the plug hadn’t been designed and constructed properly or wasn’t in the right place.

"The amount of rock pressure above the plug could in certain circumstances be insufficient to withhold the water pressure behind the plug," O’Hara explains. "That could weaken the rock and cause a failure above the plug."

The piezometer was left inside the rock around the plug to constantly monitor the pressure.

"That plug has been in place for 25 years and hadn’t been monitored up to thus point," O’Hara adds.

About one year ago a test of the 4100 level plug was conducted by turning a valve off a week after the spring freshet began. As soon as the water rose to a height of 250 metres within the mine above the 4100 portal the water was brought down in a controlled discharge. The test was to determine what volume of water could be stored in the mine. The test indicated that there was 450,000 cubic metres of storage instead of the expected one million cubic metres.

"What this meant was that we would not be able to store as much water as we would have liked," Healy continues. "The plug test gave information about how much water the treatment plant would need to treat. This information was used in the design of the treatment plant."

The last 25 years of flow data and precipitation at the upper levels of the mine have enabled consultants to use a model to determine how much storage is required.

"There were certain years that we could not completely store all that water and some water would have to be discharged and not go through the treatment plant," Healy explains.

O’Hara says that a number of options were explored for disposal of sludge; a waste product from the treatment plant. This is a key component of the cleanup. Jane Basin, six kilometres east of the Britannia town site at 1,250 metres above sea level, was explored as a permanent sludge disposal site. A second option was a commercial landfill located out of province. The third option was an off-site landfill located within 15 km of Britannia.

Two other options for sludge disposal were also looked at about 5 km above Britannia.

"One option was pumping sludge up to Mount Shear and the other option was trucking it up there," O’Hara continues. "The Mount Shear option was dropped because of evidence of debris torrents in the north side of the valley that could disrupt a facility up there."

Reports that came out in December 2002 and early in 2003 addressed studies that were undertaken on sludge disposal.

"What came out of the studies was that there’s an area at the 4100 level northeast of the white church near a plateau above the town site that’s suitable for up to three years temporary storage," O’Hara explains. "That would allow a large volume of material that would be generated by the real plant to be assessed for its physical and chemical properties with a view of having the sludge shipped to potential end users."

The cleanup of the mine site has been the main issue at Britannia. The next biggest issue is uncertainty about development. Pam Tattersfield has lived in Britannia Beach for 11 years and has attended many public meetings about the remediation project and future development in the community.

"We still don’t know who our landlord or hopefully our partners are going to be," Tattersfield says.

Ian Hagemoen, president of Britannia Mines Reclamation Corp, the landowner in Britannia, may be able to put at least some of Tattersfield’s concerns to rest.

"The community that is here now would probably remain similar to what it is," Hagemoen says. "I would think that you would probably see whomever is in charge making those lands available to residents for purchase. I believe there would be a substantial discount given to the residents in order to purchase."

Hagemoen is optimistic about the cleanup and development in Britannia.

"Eventually there will be a lot of homes – probably upscale homes here," he continues. "There’s a lot of land available for development here."

Hagemoen is quick to acknowledge that a great deal of land is still contaminated.

"But that is going to be cleaned up," he says. "They’re starting on that very quickly within a matter of weeks."

There are many factors that make Britannia an attractive area for development.

"The topography is excellent," Hagemoen says. "If you take a look at the slopes they don’t appear to be as steep as at Lions Bay. You get a great deal more sun earlier in the day."

Potentially the first phase of land to be developed would be on the north side of Britannia Creek. There was no mining on that side of the creek and that land has not been contaminated. But there’s a huge liability associated with becoming a landowner in Britannia and the cleanup of the site may ultimately be linked to development. One option for generating future funding for the cleanup might be an environmental levy.

"This would be a development cost charge that would be payable by any developer of land in Britannia," Clarke suggests.

Revenues that could be expected from development are very hard to quantify at this point.

"It really depends on what a developer would look at doing in terms of numbers of lots and what types of development would occur," Clarke continues.

The cost of the cleanup and the costs of property or a residence would need to be taken into account to determine what the development potential would be and what would be a fair amount in terms of a levy. But the provincial government is not focusing on the long-term development at this time.

"This has been a pollution problem now for over 70 years so the primary provincial objective is to get on with the remediation and clean it up," Clarke reiterates.

An environmental levy to offset the cleanup costs in Britannia has been pretty well agreed to.

"The government will require a certain fee per lot developed," Hagemoen says. "Now what that number is, I think is still subject to negotiation. But that’s why I’m sure the government would encourage development here because it helps off-set the costs."

An environmental levy would be a fee on the land itself. As the lots are sold there would be a fee paid to the provincial government to help sustain the treatment plant.

"Our objective is to have money from an environmental levy directed towards the remediation of the site to provide a contribution towards the cleanup," Clarke says.

Hagemoen thinks there will be two or three types of development in Britannia: residential, some commercial and possibly an interpretive centre.

"There’s been a great deal of talk from UBC and the federal government to put in interpretive centres," he "It’s not agreed to yet but there could be a teaching area along with the museum.

A Supreme Court hearing in Vancouver last week resulted in the mortgage holder, a numbered company 400091, seeking an Order Absolute to take control of the company because the mortgage is in arrears.

"In the past the company has not been able to do any development because of the pollution problem," Hagemoen says. "Now that the money is in place those fears are being negated."

What happens next depends on the Order Absolute going through. But there have already been some dramatic changes in Britannia. Hagemoen refers to the cleanup of Britannia Creek.

"The creek was basically a dead zone," he recounts. "The first thing that came back was green algae. Then barnacles started to appear. I was down there the other day and there’s muscles and seaweed."

Tattersfield is confident the cleanup will be done.

"No matter what!" she says.

Hagemoen takes it a step further.

"It will happen. It will be cleaned up and it will be a beautiful site one day."