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Britannia mine cleanup agreement reached

Widely condemned as one of the worst toxic polluters on the continent, government and industry will working together to clean up the Britannia mine site After decades of passing the buck and four months of debate between "responsible parties,&qu

Widely condemned as one of the worst toxic polluters on the continent, government and industry will working together to clean up the Britannia mine site

After decades of passing the buck and four months of debate between "responsible parties," a cost-sharing agreement has been reached between the provincial government, and both the former and current owners of the Britannia mine site – widely recognized as the single largest point source of metals pollution in North America.

"This landmark agreement means clean water will again flow in Britannia Creek and into Howe Sound," said Environment, Lands and Parks Minister Ian Waddell in an April 12 release.

"The Britannia mine has been a source of acid drainage for far too long. Under legislation enacted by this ministry in 1997, parties with corporate links to past mine operators and the current landowner have voluntarily negotiated agreements to fix this problem that has been polluting our environment so badly."

The cleanup plan is expected to cost between $60 million and $75 million to implement. A list of "potentially responsible parties," including previous owners and the provincial and federal governments, will pick up $30 million of the cleanup tab. Although the mine was owned by three different companies in its 70 years of operation – the Britannia Mining and Smelting Company Ltd. (1902 to 1958); How Sound Corp. (1958 to 1963) and Anaconda Mining Company (1963 to 1974) – none of the former owners exist as the same corporate entities. For that reason, the long list of potentially responsible parties included parent companies, renamed or associated companies, and subsidiaries.

Anaconda has ties with Canzinco Ltd., Ivaco/Arrowhead Metals Inc., and the Atlantic Richfield Company (Arco), which are included on the list. Canzinco, eager to share the load, argued that the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) was also responsible as the legal successor of Howe Sound Corp. Arco also made a motion to include three of Alcoa’s Delaware subsidiaries.

How the $30 million worth of responsibilities will be divided among the companies and governments has yet to be announced.

Copper Beach Estates Ltd. – a Vancouver-based real estate developer and the owner of the property since 1979 – will contribute $5 million towards the cleanup. Taxpayers will likely be on the hook for the remainder of the costs.

An application has been made by The Fraser Basin Council to the Canada-B.C. infrastructure program to finance up to two-thirds of the cost of building a $12 million water treatment site to neutralize acidic effluent from the mine site. The remaining one-third will be provided by "potentially responsible" parties’ contributions.

Copper Beach will be responsible for co-managing the water treatment plant along with the provincial government, contributing an estimated $1.7 million a year towards maintenance and operating costs in perpetuity.

In addition, Copper Beach will build a road to transport treatment sludge, contaminated soils and sediments to the old mine site further up the mountain in an area known as Jane Basin.

If required, additional costs incurred by cleanup efforts could be financed by the further development of the Britannia Mine property, this includes levies on future household developments on the site once it is cleaned up.

There is another plan in the works, put forward by Copper Beach, that would see the open pits on Mount Sheer become a landfill for contaminated soil from the region. Dumping fees would be used to cover both the capital and operating costs of the Britannia mines cleanup project – however, the government’s press release made no mention of this alternative.

According to the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, it is high time that something was done to remedy the situation.

"Environment Canada calls the site the largest single source of metals contamination in North America. Every day up to one tonne of toxic copper and zinc flows from the mine site into Howe Sound without any treatment whatsoever," said Mitch Anderson, a staff scientist for Sierra Legal.

While he is glad that the cleanup is at last moving forward, Anderson cautions the public not to expect the cleanup to take place overnight. "There remain unanswered questions surrounding ongoing financing, sludge disposal, and other aspects of the plan."

Alan Young, the executive director of the Environmental Mining Council of B.C., said: "We are happy that the provincial government has finally forced the companies that are responsible for this perpetual pollution machine to come up with the majority of the money needed to fix the problem. Plus the federal and provincial governments appear ready to commit some public funds to help make the clean-up happen."

The agreement puts an end to two decades of debate over who was responsible for the cleanup, and months of round table meetings with responsible parties. In the end, the provincial government had to threaten to take the mining companies and current owner to court under the liability provisions of the B.C. Waste Management.

Copper Beach, which has argued that it didn’t know what it was getting into when it purchased the 1,800 acre site, had failed to meet four different pollution remediation orders issued under the Waste Management Act.

The companies that owned and operated the mine have denied responsibility in the past, arguing that they were operating in compliance with the laws and environmental codes of the day.

Energy and Mines Minister Glenn Robertson said he was pleased to see government and industry agree to a solution, all threats aside.

"Some people judge today’s industry on the basis of past practices, although with B.C.’s current mining practices and regulations, this kind of damage could never happen again," said Robertson. "Cleaning up Britannia underscores B.C.’s commitment to environmentally responsible mining. It will protect the environment and help to correct misconceptions about modern mining."

The metals pollution that flows into Jane and Britannia Creeks and into the water of Howe Sound is the result of acid rock drainage, or the exposure of sulphide-bearing ores to water and oxygen.

During the spring thaws and rainy seasons, water pours into open pits, or glory holes, on the crown of Mount Sheer and into the mines, where it is picks up traces of copper, iron, cadmium, aluminum and zinc. Sulphide-bearing metals also combine with the water and oxygen to form sulphuric acid. The contaminated water collects in toxic pools and, when the water levels rise high enough, can dump up to 50 million litres of toxic effluent out of the mine’s two main shafts every day.

While this acid rock drainage has little or no effect on humans, the results have been catastrophic for Howe Sound marine life, killing and contaminating species in a 20 kilometre area. Up to five million salmon have been affected each year when they pass by the area, and vegetation, both aquatic and bordering on the polluted creek beds, is almost non-existent in some places.

There are three parts to the cleanup plan. The first is to recap the mine’s shafts and diverting runoff into a closed pipeline. The second step is to pipe the water into a treatment plant. Adding lime to the mix will neutralize the acid and cause the metals to form a sludge. The third step is to cap the glory holes, either using the sludge or contaminated landfill from the region. This will limit the supply of oxygen reaching the exposed metals and cut down on the production of sulphuric acid. The sludge can also be reprocessed to collect the metals.

Construction of the water treatment plant is expected to begin this year, and will be completed and operational by 2003.