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B.C. government approves higher Mount Polley tailings dam, 12 years after disaster
The expansion would keep the mine operating until 2033 and protect 430 jobs, while the government says new impacts are unlikely.
- On Thursday, Environment Minister Tamara Davidson and Mining Minister Jagrup Brar approved plans to raise the Mount Polley tailings storage facility height by 13 metres, bringing the dam to 77 metres.
- This expansion follows a 2014 collapse at the Cariboo region mine, where a storage site failure spilled about 25 million cubic metres of water and tailings into nearby waterways in one of the province's worst environmental disasters.
- Protecting 430 jobs and allowing production until 2033, the government says the height increase will not create significant new environmental impacts compared with existing operations, according to the Environmental Assessment Office.
- Despite a failed Supreme Court challenge last year, the Xat First Nation remains concerned, describing the process as "inadequate and inconsistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples."
- While the First Nation pursues an appeal, Davidson and Brar maintain that regulatory mechanisms provide oversight; the plans still require permit amendments under the Mines Act.
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The Toronto Star+27 Reposted by 27 other sources
B.C. government approves higher Mount Polley tailings dam, 12 years after disaster
VICTORIA - Ministers in British Columbia have approved plans to increase the height of the tailings storage facility at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine, the site of a
·Toronto, Canada
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B.C. government approves higher Mount Polley tailings dam, 12 years after disaster – Energeticcity.ca
An aerial view shows the debris going into Quesnel Lake caused by a tailings pond breach near the town of Likely, B.C., on August, 5, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward VICTORIA — Ministers in British Columbia have approved plans to increase the height of the tailings storage facility at the Mount Polley copper and gold mine, the site of a catastrophic dam collapse more than a decade ago. The government says the height increase, which had…
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Total News Sources29
Leaning Left17Leaning Right0Center11Last UpdatedBias Distribution61% Left
Bias Distribution
- 61% of the sources lean Left
61% Left
L 61%
C 39%
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