Protect Canadian Lakes Background

Lakes and rivers that are fish habitat are protected by the federal Fisheries Act. The Fisheries Act is Canada’s oldest environmental legislation and prohibits the release of “deleterious substances” into fish-bearing waters, and the alteration or destruction of fish habitat. Despite these specific prohibitions, fish habitat can be destroyed and/or deleterious substances can be deposited into fish bearing waters with the permission of the Minister or if permitted by regulations under the Fisheries Act!

So, essentially, the process of dumping mine tailing is illegal, unless it is specifically permitted.

There is a regulation under the Fisheries Act that governs mines and their waste and how they dispose of it.  It is called the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations (MMER).  This regulation permits the deposit of mine tailings in certain areas under certain circumstances with the view to protecting the environment.

In 2002, the MMER was amended and a “schedule” was added. Schedule 2 essentially re-defines any natural water body that is listed on it as a “Tailings Impoundment Area.” Once a lake or river has been put on Schedule 2, it is no longer considered a natural water body (and no longer protected by the Fisheries Act) and a mining company can use it as a dumping ground for millions of tonnes of toxic tailings and waste rock.

The original intent of this “Schedule” was to grandfather five mining operations in Canada that were using lakes as tailing dumps before the regulation was enacted and to bring them into compliance with the Act. However, now new mines are lining up and applying to get nearby lakes onto schedule 2.  Why?  Because it would save them tens of millions of dollars in operating costs over the life of their mine.  Why build and maintain a tailings pond if you can simply dispose of your waste in a natural lake basin?
 
Two lakes were approved for destruction in this way in 2006.  They were located near Buchans, Newfoundland (Trout Pond and Duck Pond). These lakes used to contain Atlantic salmon and brook trout and were also home to otters. They are now essentially biological dead zones. These were essentially the precedent setting lakes.  They squeaked through this questionable approval process. Since then the requests from the international mining industry to use Canadian waters for their toxic waste disposal have increased at an alarming rate.

Visit here for a map and list of all the mines/lakes currently under review.

The fate of many of these lakes has yet to be decided.  However there is currently a strong bias within the government towards allowing the use of water bodies to receive mine wastes. Environment Canada staff have told us that this is not only an appropriate action, but in some cases it is the “best solution” for dealing with mine wastes. It is now critical that Canadians weigh in to stop the destruction of more of our precious water resources.

For more information contact John Werring at (604) 732-4228, extension 245, or jwerring@davidsuzuki.org.