Is Bucko Lake Doomed? Let's Make Sure it Doesn't Happen!

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Call for Position Statements - Bucko Lake and Metal Mining Effluent Regulations


Local and national consultations sessions are being planned for amendments to the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations (MMER) in the near future. These would require alterations of our Fisheries Act, too, allowing for harmful substances (toxic mining waste) to be dumped into dammed freshwater lakes, thus turning them into Tailings Impoundment Areas - a euphemism for ruined, former life bearing lakes.

Here in Manitoba, Crowflight Minerals Inc. (see photo, below) has applied for a permit to dump their nickel mine waste into Bucko Lake, close to Wabowden, south of Thompson, a portion of the headwaters for the Grass River system, and in woodland caribou territory. Yikes. The application is in the Public Registry and Conservation is accepting comments even though the time period has passed. We asked for that.
The faces of the people who would turn Bucko Lake into a toxic dump.
It is a subsidy for the mining companies. It is cheaper to dam a lake and dump waste into it than to create a pit and pour water on it to keep the ore from oxidizing in the sun. The CEN has been asked to send delegates to a session planned on the topic of the latest proposal, for Terrane Metals Corp. to use King Richard and Alpine Creek in northern B.C. as a waste pit for their copper-gold project. I'm sure you can appreciate the chemical content in the residuals from that operation. Cyanide, for instance.

MiningWatch did a good job of intervening with the Voisey Bay project in Labrador/Newfoundland but they could use our voices to lend support to their efforts to take a lead on this issue and oppose the changes by the feds and to conduct a comprehensive study administered by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. 


We would benefit from having position statements forwarded to us by your group. There's a chance I'll be going to the next session, held in Gatineau, to learn more about this and offer up some opinions to Environment Canada and mining companies. We don't have groups working specifically on mining issues in Manitoba, but we do have several groups interested in issues of water quality, pollution prevention, and caribou habitat. I would sincerely appreciate some solidarity in the challenging of this scheme to ruin more of our dwindling fresh water supplies and pristine habitats.


For further or background information, call EC project manager Kelly Ellis at 819 934-6056 or HYPERLINK "mailto:kelly.ellis@ec.gc.ca" kelly.ellis@ec.gc.ca. Or check out CEA's website.

Thanks, Lindy Clubb - 
assistant executive director, Mixedwood Forest Society
 204 475-9608

Comments

Olamim said…
While there are no groups officially working on mining issues in Manitoba, there is more and more interest being shown in it in Winnipeg, by the indigenous peoples solidarity movement and others. Last year's big issue of the Dominion News from the Grassroots was exclusively on mining issues and distributed widely, and there have been a host of films on Canadian mining companies in Latin America. Also I started a Facebook group called Hold HudBay Minerals Accountable (easy quick search) in light of a shooting death at their Fenix project in Guatemala. Finally, one of the four speakers Saturday Oct. 31 as part of Indigenous Sovereignty Week is Sam McKay of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Innununwug community of NW Ontario, the community fighting Platinex on their land. The whole event is worth attending as it includes a speaker also from Fort Chip. fighting the tar sands.

Saturday Oct 31, 12-4PM

Defenders of the Land: Voices of Resistance - Panel and Workshop

@ University of Winnipeg Bulman Student Centre, Spence St. doors and downstairs

Come hear the voices of

Mike Mercredi, Fort Chipewyan, Alberta - living and dying downstream from the tar sands

Sam McKay, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI6) - stopping uranium exploration

Judy da Silva and Roberta Keesick, Grassy Narrows - asserting rights on traditional territories

John Miswagon, former chief Pimicikamak Cree Nation (Cross Lake) - continuing the resistance to Manitoba Hydro injustices

child care available on request. email winnipeg.ipsm@gmail.com

Sponsorship for this event provided by CUPE's National Aboriginal Council
October 29, 2009 at 10:34 AM
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