Polley Mine Tailings Pond Breach Potentially Devastating for Salmon

This entry was posted in Watershed Watch Activities and tagged Craig Orr, Polley Mine, salmon, sockeye, spill, toxic, Watershed Watch.. Posted by Trish Hall on August 6, 2014

On the morning of Monday, August 4, 2014, the containment wall of a tailings pond at the Mount Polley mine ruptured spilling a vast amount of contaminated water into the river systems downstream from the mine. Unfortunately, this occurred just as thousands of sockeye and other species of salmon are making their way upstream to spawn. The immediate and long-term impacts of this environmental disaster as still unclear, but the extent of the spill is made obvious by the footage below from Global News.

There has been extensive media coverage of this spill, the potential causes and what it means for the environment. Watershed Watch Executive Director, Craig Orr, comments on what this means for salmon and the state of industry regulation in BC in the following articles:

• Vancouver Sun, August 6, 2014, B.C. sockeye salmon return in doubt after Quesnel spill
• Georgia Straight; August 6, 2014; Mount Polley mine tailings breach is “wake-up call” for B.C., environmentalist says
• Prince George Free Press; August 6, 2014; Estimated 1.5 million sockeye bound for fouled Quesnel Lake
• News 1130; August 6, 2014; Conservationist wants changes after failure of dam around tailings pond in the Cariboo
• Global BC; August 6, 2014; B.C. orders mine to plug toxic tailings release
• Globe and Mail; August 6, 2014; First Nations fear the worst for B.C.’s salmon run following Mount Polley breach
• CBC; August 6, 2014; Mount Polley mine spill threatens B.C. sockeye salmon run
• CTV News; August 6, 2014; B.C. government orders mine to plug further release from tailings pond
• Huffington Post; August 6, 2014; Mount Polley Mine Tailings Pond Breach: Company Ordered To Clean Up
• Globe and Mail; August 6, 2014; First Nations fear the worst for B.C.’s salmon run following Mount Polley breach
• Alaska Dispatch News; August 6, 2014; Mine tailings spill in interior British Columbia brings emergency declaration
• Bloomberg Business Week; August 6, 2014; Mine Spill in B.C.’s Cariboo Leads to State of Emergency