Some environmental safeguards built into British Columbia mine approvalsNew university research suggests that the current state of affairs is being slowly eliminated without sufficient scientific oversight or public scrutiny.
Researchers published a paper recently. Dalhousie University’sSchool for Resource and Environmental Studies found that mining companies have been able modify their original operating conditions in ways which can have serious impacts on water resources. These amendments are often granted without any scientific justification or follow-up.
“We express concern that the amendment process is being used as a loophole, intentionally or unintentionally, to evade the rigour and scrutiny of the full environmental assessment process,” said Ben Collison, lead author of the paper published in the journal Facets.
Collison stated that while his research was limited to B.C. the same thing could be happening across the country.
“This could be part of a bigger picture,” he said.
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David Karn, spokesman forB.C.’s department of Environment and Climate Change, disputed the paper’s conclusions.
“The Environmental Assessment Office has a robust process to review any application to amend an environmental assessment certificate,” he said in an email.
Collison and his associates looked at 23 British Columbia mines that were approved in 2002 to 2020 after an environmental assessment. The total number of amendments requested by 15 of those mines was 49, with most of them requesting the amendments within three years of their opening.
Almost all — 98 per cent — were granted.
The researchers concluded that 20 of those amendments were likely be detrimental to water resources. The amendments allowed changes to effluent discharge, increased withdrawals of water and damage to fish habitat. One allowed a mine’s production to rise by 50%.
Collison stated these amendments were made without any scientific justification or oversight.
“It was very, very difficult to find information in those amendment documents that gave us numerical, quantitative descriptions of the proposed changes,” he said. “Oftentimes, these were being approved without any followup monitoring studies or enforcement actions or compliance checkups after the fact.”
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The report shows examples of amendments being granted, despite the fact that the B.C.Environmental Assessment office acknowledged that there was no information on their effects. In 2017, one mine was allowed to change its tailings storage on the understanding that a water treatment plant would be up and running _ a plant that, said Collison, still wasn’t operating as of earlier this year.
“There were changes that could have potentially serious impacts,” he said.
But Karn said that the paper didn’t look at the whole story.
“This research project was conducted using only documents posted on the (assessment office’s) project information website, which does not provide a complete account of (its) rigorous assessment process and project information,” he said.
Karn stated that all amendments are carefully evaluated. First Nations are consulted, and public participation may be sought.
“Amendments do not weaken the requirements for proponents to protect environmental values, conditions and actions, which are part of their environmental assessment certificates, and in many cases will result in strengthened requirements,” Karn said.
Collison stated that the situation in the province has improved since the new environmental assessment legislation was passed in 2019. This is because more information has been made public.
He warned, however, that his study was too narrowly focused. It only covered mines, water impact and one province. Its amendments are still in effect.
“This is only a small piece of the puzzle,” Collison said. “The findings call into question the credibility of the entire environmental assessment process. I think there are other impacts that other researchers should look at.”
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