ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF HUCKLEBERRY MINE

The proposed Huckleberry Mine, near Houston BC, is one of the first projects to be reviewed under BC's new Environmental Assessment Act (BCEAA). As the assessment continues, a number of serious issues have emerged about the environmental effects of allowing the mine, and opportunities for public participation in the review process.

The review began in 1993 before BCEAA became law, with a pre-application for the Mine Development Approval Process (MDAP). The MDAP application for the open pit copper and molybdenum mine was accepted on 19 May 1995 as a project report, "in the spirit of the E.A.A." This began the project report stage of the environmental assessment. After the application was accepted, open houses were held, public comments were encouraged and the executive director of the Environmental Assessment Office established a Project Committee made up of different levels of government, including First Nations, to assess the report.

The BCEAA process was envisioned as an open, accountable and neutrally administered process, with opportunities for participation by First Nations and community groups, yet the public review of the project report for the proposed mine lasted only 7 weeks from the day it was filed, despite the quantity of detailed information produced which required intensive technical review. Media and members of the general public are not permitted to attend meetings of the Project Committee.

Key environmental issues related to the mine are acid rock drainage (ARD), leaching of heavy metals, and the mine's cumulative impact on wildlife, water and fisheries. In its comments on the project report, the Ministry of Environment Lands and Parks (MOELP) expressed the following concerns about the proposed mine:

"The potential for a perpetual discharge of unacceptably high concentrations of metals and other contaminants from the East Zone pit following mine closure from oxidation (ARD) of the exposed pit wall. ...[and] into Tahtsa Reach as the East Zone pit is being flooded at abandonment."

"The use of potentially acid generating waste rock in construction of tailings dams"

"The need for wildlife biophysical habitat mapping to be completed for the mine site, Huckleberry connector, airstrip and gravel pits"

MOELP also asked the company to justify changes to its original plan for tailings management which would increase the area of disturbance by 100 hectares and destroy an important wetland habitat.

The information provided by the mining company also contains technical inadequacies. For example, the effluent modeling was based on unsupported assumptions, apparent misuse of significant figures and potentially inaccurate estimates of pollutant levels. Modeling to estimate the capacity of tailings storage facilities to resist failure under conditions of maximum precipitation was carried out in a manner which lead to overly optimistic estimates of failure probability. Overall, participants in the last Project Committee meeting "clearly agreed that the ARD testwork and related predictions in the Application were useless and among the worst ever seen in a submission," according to Kevin Morin, an ARD expert participating in the review process at the request of the Province. Since its original application, the company has proposed a new plan which would involve placing all rock and tailings underwater behind a huge dam in an artificial "lake."

The project report stage of the environmental assessment will be completed on September 15 1995. On the recommendation of the Project Committee the executive director of the Environmental Assessment Office will then refer the application to the Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, and the Minister of the Environment. After considering the application and any recommendations of the Project Committee, the Ministers must do one of three things: issue a project approval certificate with conditions if necessary, refuse to issue the approval, or refer the application to the Environmental Assessment Board for a hearing. It is the duty of the Environmental Assessment Board "to conduct public hearings into, and review and make recommendations to the Lieutenant Governor in Council."

Although the deadline is approaching, the company has outstanding obligations, including information that must be provided. Without this information ministry participants in the Project Committee have indicated that they will not support the issuance of a project approval certificate. It appears that a hard look has been given to the potential adverse environmental impacts of the project. At the same time the short timeline and limited opportunities for public participation legislated by the BCEAA have emerged as concerns for some community members and First Nations who will be affected by the mine, and for environmental groups who may soon be using this new piece of legislation.

- Jessica Clogg

Fax the Feds!

The Toxics Caucus of the Canadian Environmental Network is adding an electronic component to its campaign to strengthen the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA). The Caucus, composed of environmental groups from across Canada, has set up a system that allows anyone to "FAX THE FEDS" by sending an e-mail message (presumably about the importance of improving CEPA) to an e-mail address (cepa911@web.apc.org) that automatically forwards the message to the fax machines of ten key federal cabinet ministers.

The issue is that the federal government is now deciding on its official response to recommendations made by the Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development following cross-Canada hearings on the five-year review of CEPA.

Apparently, Environment Minister Sheila Copps supports the bulk of the the Committee's recommendations, but some other cabinet ministers are wavering under intense lobbying from industry groups. The Caucus wants to convince Cabinet that strengthening CEPA is well within federal constitutional jurisdiction and that it would save -- rather than cost -- money.

The Caucus' system includes a World Wide Web site called "CEPA 911 -- It's About Our Health!" It can be found at the following URL: http://www.web.apc.org/users/centox. (This page is no longer there. This link will take you to the Web home page.) The site provides the full text of the Caucus' briefs to the Committee, the Committee's recommendations and more, related information.

For more information about the CEPA five-year review, or how to access the Caucus' Internet site, please contact Bill Andrews at WCEL.

EDRF Update

This has been a busy time for the Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund. Aside from our usual flurries of granting activity, the EDRF fund has been transferred from the auspices of West Coast Environmental Law Association to a separate charitable society. Donations can now be received by, and tax creditable receipts issued by, the West Coast Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund Society.

As previously reported in WCEL News, the Law Foundation of BC renewed our funding for another year, and also the funding for Patricia Houlihan, the EDRF Liaison Lawyer. Thanks to everyone who sent in letters of support for the EDRF and the liaison lawyer.

In our recent granting activities:

• The Cortes Island Forest Committee was given a grant to develop an ecosystem based plan for Cortes Island to protect watersheds, wildlife and ecological features. The grant will enable the CIFC to undertake negotiations with local logging companies to produce an "ecological map" of Cortes Island and develop an agreement regarding environmental protection for the Island as a whole, rather than addressing timber harvesting on a stand by stand basis. A subcommittee has been formed to work with the stakeholders in developing an overall forest use plan. The consultants have conducted a week of field work and have begun their technical analysis of the data collected.

• The Koksilah River Protection Society was given funding to assist them in protecting the Koksilah River from the potential adverse effects of a sewage system for a proposed subdivision. The hearing date for the judicial review of the EAB's decision to allow the developer's proposal has not yet been set, but is expected to take place in the fall.

• Shuswap Association for Ecological Development received a grant for legal assistance to attempt to require the developer's compliance with a development permit and an agreement of July 6, 1994 between SAPED and the developer.

• The Friends of West Arrow Park Association received a grant to protect wildlife habitat. In 1964, under the Columbia River Treaty, BC Hydro expropriated most of the land and forced out all of the residents of West Arrow Park, a small town on the river south of Nakusp. In 1989, after lengthy studies and surveys, Hydro offered approximately 800 acres of that land for sale as 10 Farm Units. Most of the land was sold to an orchardist, but 40 acres of trees planted in 1993 were not maintained and the timber rights of the Farm Units were sold to a logging company. The Friends of West Arrow Park believe that due to the extreme isolation of the land, its value a wildlife habitat outweighs its potential for agricultural use. The EDRF grant will enable the Friends to obtain a legal opinion on the options available to them to protect the land and negotiate with the provincial government and BC Hydro to take steps to preserve land for wildlife habitat.

• Surrey/Langley Environmental Protection Society was given a grant that will enable the Society to appeal the timelines provided for in the GVRD air pollution abatement order issued against Money's Mushrooms. The group hopes to have the timeline shortened as the problem has been ongoing and needs to be addressed immediately in order to protect the health of community residents and stop air pollution from the Money's composting facility. A notice of appeal of the terms of the GVRD order has been filed. It is expected that the hearing will take place in the Fall.

• Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Council received a grant to interpret the CORE Chilcotin/Cariboo Land Use Plan and provide legal advice regarding the position the applicant should take at the Regional Board meetings.

• Peace Country Environmental Protection Association was given a grant to appeal Louisiana-Pacific's air emissions permit for the Dawson Creek strandboard plant. The Association is attempting to have the permit quashed or amended to eliminate pollutants which may pose a serious health risk to the community. The Environmental Appeal Board hearing to challenge the air emissions permit has been set for early October. Experts have been retained and are now gathering evidence for their reports which will be used as evidence at the hearing.

• Williams Lake Environmental Society received funding for an expert's report and legal opinion regarding an appeal of the Williams Lake Fibreboard Company Ltd.'s air emissions permit. No date has been set for the oral hearing as yet, but the medical and technical experts have started their assessment of air conditions in preparation for the hearing.

• Applied Ecological Stewardship Coalition of BC received funding to prepare a hydrological study and negotiate with the Ministry of Forests and Meadow Creek Cedar Company about preserving the Singing Forest.

• Queens Bay Residents Association was awarded a grant to evaluate the effects of cutting in the region and to participate in the multi-stakeholder planning process with the Ministry of Forests, Kootenay Lake District and the Meadow Lake Cedar Company.

• East Kootenay Environmental Society received a follow-up grant for a judicial review of the administrative decision regarding the granting of a wetlands area which the Crown did not have legal authority to grant. The Society hopes to restore the filled wetlands and revert the area to the Crown.

• Friends of the Stikine Society received funding that will enable the Friends to document and prepare a professional fisheries biologist's report outlining effects of Cominco's Hovercraft operation on the river and its biota. The report will be used to seek legal advice and to allow effective participation in the current review of hovercraft use being undertaken by Cominco and DFO.

And, in ongoing work:

• Slocan Valley Watershed Alliance's stream monitoring program and field work continues. They have two final hydrology reports on the New Denver Flats area and the Elliot Andrews area. Work is currently being done in the Airy-Tisdale area with an initial draft report in preparation.

• Granby Wilderness Society is at work on its newsletter. The Society's goal is to inform the public of the need to expand the Protected Area to maintain a sustainable grizzly habitat. A provincial government workshop is scheduled for the fall, which hopefully will deal with the issue of special management areas and the inclusion of local Bands in the planning process.

• Outdoor Recreation Council continues to be involved in the follow-up to the Vancouver Island CORE process, participating in the Low Intensity Areas Study involved in treaty negotiations regarding land use and participating in the Ursus Creek Local Resource Planning Advisory Group. Ursus Creek is the first site where the special management concept is being applied on the ground.

- Morgan Ashbridge

Novel approaches for National Grassroots Conference

The organizers of Tools for Action: Health & Environment: Taking Effective Community Action, A National Grassroots Conference, are taking a novel approach. They hope to keep the conference spirit alive well after it's over. Using the internet, they "are now setting up a communications system that will keep participants in touch after they've gone home, wherever that may be across Canada."

Labeled a working conference, attendees will look at "the process of community action and how it can be improved." Relying heavily on workshops, much of the content has been determined by the conference's audience, based on a questionnaire that was sent to health and environment groups nationwide.

Workshops will feature topics such as brainstorming for "win-win" situations, getting and spreading information through newsletters, using the internet as a tool for activism, how to get governments, businesses and non-profits working for you, publicity, and fundraising.

The conference will close not with the traditional summary, but with a discussion led by a participant-selected panel. The panel members will bring together what they learned in the workshops to devise a post-conference support system.

Conference and registration information is available on the world wide web, and is accessible at http://freenet.vancouver.bc.ca/local/wcel/otherpub/grasroot/.

The conference will take place on September 29, 30, and October 1, 1995, at Northern Lights College, in Dawson Creek, BC. Featured speakers include Vicky Husband, Conservation Chair of the Sierra Club of BC, and Gladys Netro, a native conservationist from Whitehorse, Yukon.

For more information, contact the Citizens' Advisory for Research on the Environment (CARE), at Box 823, Dawson Creek, BC, V1G 4H8, or contact Don Pettit at (604) 782-1063 or at care@pris.bc.ca.

WCELRF Newsletter (ISSN #0715-4275), copyright 1995, is published by the West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation and represents the work of the West Coast Environmental Law Groups. West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation (WCELRF) does research and education and maintains an environmental law library. West Coast Environmental Law Association (WCELA) provides legal representation and promotes law reform. The West Coast Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund Society (WCEDRFS) provides assistance and funding to citizens to help solve environmental problems in their communities. The mission of the West Coast Environmental Law groups is to provide legal services to protect the environment and to foster public participation in environmental decision-making. We are grateful to the Law Foundation of British Columbia for core funding of the West Coast Environmental Law groups. Donations to West Coast Environmental Law Research Foundation and West Coast Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund Society are tax creditable. This issue was produced by Bill Andrews, Morgan Ashbridge, Jessica Clogg, Chris Heald, Ann Hillyer, Patricia Houlihan, Catherine Ludgate, Alexandra Melnyk, and Linda Nowlan.