Mount Polley mine tailings pond breach called environmental disaster - British Columbia - CBC News
One of those "won't ever happen things", that happened.
One of those "won't ever happen things", that happened.
All that crud going into Lake Quesnel. Hard to put a value on that.
We better get used to stuff like this happening.
Been going on for as long as man has mined for metal... Hell, there are all kinds of legacy gold mines throughout the Shield that just dumped their milled tailings in heaps on the forest floor or in the creeks
Just because it was done before is no excuse to allow it to continue.
People have been murdered in the past as well, should we just throw up our hands and say "oh well" that's just the way it is whenever someone is killed?
Government allows self-regulation and inspection , and companies will deny problems until a massive disasters happens in order to protect their shareholders financial holdings.
In order for a massive breach like this to happen , the structural integrity of the tailings pond must've been in question for quite a long time.
And kept hidden.
That was not the message.
Surely they will tighten the rules and increase the regulatory framework until the next breech occurs.
On that note, back in the day, that was the accepted practice founded on the height of science and knowledge... Now we know better.. Until next time.
Government allows self-regulation and inspection , and companies will deny problems until a massive disasters happens in order to protect their shareholders financial holdings.
In order for a massive breach like this to happen , the structural integrity of the tailings pond must've been in question for quite a long time.
And kept hidden.
In a day or too everything will settle.Local residents are calling it an environmental disaster.
The way I look at it, it's the industries themselves that need to take the lead on safety matters. And the only avenue available to really enforce compliance towards that goal is stiff, and I mean extremely stiff, penalties.
I'm not claiming to have an understanding of the specific industry, nor of the will within the industry to prevent such things from happening. Nor do I mean to imply that no such will exists. But I do understand cost/benefit analysis. And I also know that if the option is there to cut some corners then there will always be those that cut them. If you make the cost of cutting corners excessive enough then that effectively cancels out the option of doing so. The reason people cut corners to save resources, money.
To me increasing regulation just adds more compliance hoops, it increases operations costs (always). Regulation should be as simple as possible but very well defined. Standards are X, and the cost of not meeting those standards results in Y. If Y is excessive enough, they'll make damn sure they meet a solid X, if not better, when performing tasks and operations that can have a huge impact on the surrounding area.
Is that too simplistic? Am I being naive?
It was just a settling pond. Rock flour. The water is safe as it is continually discharged into the river.Turbidity is probably the only drinking water issue.
deja vuIt's reported as the tailings pond. The supernatant is discharged, but the problem will be the the fines and the sludge, which will likely be high in metals.
Government allows self-regulation and inspection , and companies will deny problems until a massive disasters happens in order to protect their shareholders financial holdings.
In order for a massive breach like this to happen , the structural integrity of the tailings pond must've been in question for quite a long time.
And kept hidden.