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JAMES: Mine disaster points to lack of regulation

"The top of the organization doesn't listen sufficiently to what the bottom is saying.

"The top of the organization doesn't listen sufficiently to what the bottom is saying."

- Anthony Hayward, 2006

Why is an eight-yearold comment by BP Oil CEO Anthony Hayward relevant in British Columbia today? Well it's because, four years before the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and began spewing 210,000 US gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico, Hayward expressed his concern about the company's habit of ignoring employees who had warned cost-saving cutbacks to inspections and maintenance would cause trouble.

In 2014, that syndrome is at the root of two disturbing news stories that erupted on Aug. 4. As many of you know, biologist Alexandra Morton began her struggle to protect a vital part of British Columbia's pristine environment in 1989.

For 25 years she has tenaciously rung the warning bells about the danger Norwegianowned fish-farms pose to the survival of B.C.'s wild salmon. Enabled by provincial permits, the industry thumbs its nose at Morton's work.

Provincial and federal regulators have not only ignored her warnings, the Harper government pared down the Department of Fisheries and gagged the scientists who remained.

News of the latest round in her battle arrived by email on B.C. Day, when Morton alerted me to a significant fish die-off at Grieg Seafood's opencontainment operations near Gold River.

When pressed for the cause, Grieg CEO Morten Vike attributed it to an algae bloom and said, "the fish in Nootka Sound are otherwise healthy."

Then, after Morton and a camera crew visited the farms, confirmed the die-off and took water samples for testing, Vike contacted the industry's communications group IntraFish and said her "allegations" were "utter nonsense."

Undaunted, Morton wrote to company owner, Mr. Per Grieg. You can read the letter and decide who to believe as you watch events unfold at: alexandramorton. typepad.com Morton's persistent attempts to be heard at 'the top' are not just about wild salmon. They're about all the other species that depend on wild fish for their own survival - bears, eagles and our forest resources to name a few.

When land-based fish-farms are a proven alternative, it speaks ill of us and our governments that we continue to allow foreign corporate bullies to deride Morton's expertise and to defile B.C. waters with impunity. In any other 'war' she would be hailed as a patriot.

Then, last Sunday, Morton unknowingly reinforced the connections I had drawn to the second part of my story: "Fraser River First Nations I work with asked me to visit the Imperial Mine disaster," she wrote.

"What I saw yesterday was deeply disturbing. Earthen berms don't hold water. Yet the warnings, engineering, even common sense were ignored. This is the behaviour I deal with over salmon-farm virus. Warnings are ignored."

Globally, there have been at least nine significant breaches at other mines since 2009. So why did the Mount Polley Mining Corporation and the province pay insufficient attention to repeated warnings that ongoing monitoring was essential at its Likely, B.C. operation? Were corporate costcutting and pared-down government inspections responsible? Imperial donated over $1 million to get the premier and her government re-elected.

But whether or not the mining industry "has enjoyed far too cosy ... ties with government regulators" as President Obama said of the oil industry, we know "the bottom" had spoken early and often about the tailings pond at the Mount Polley mine.

Several sources reported that warnings stressing the need for monitoring began in 2009.

Those red flags were repeated in 2011 by consultants Brian Olding & Associates and in a Feb. 10, 2011 sign-off letter from Knight Piésold, the mine's departing engineer of record. (knightpiesold.com) Over the joint signatures of KP's President and Managing Director, the letter was sent to the Mount Polley mining company and to the provincial chief inspector of mines.

Most telling was this comment: "The embankments and the overall tailings impoundment are getting large and it is extremely important that they be monitored, constructed and operated properly to prevent problems in the future."

To any reasonable person, the letter reads as a legal notification that Knight Piésold would no longer be responsible for the manner in which the mining company - and its new engineer, AMEC Earth and Environmental --chose to operate the pond or alter its design.

Is it true that the mining company failed to follow AMEC's instructions to strengthen the embankment with five million tonnes of rock, as widely reported by retired foreman Gerald MacBurney? If so, bearing in mind Imperial's online claim that, "supplemental monitoring plans are implemented beyond permit requirements to ensure protection of the environment" what do you think? Imperial has cameras at its Red Chris minesite; did it not keep close watch on the Mount Polley pond after the province cited the company last May for holding too much water behind the earthen dam? Where was ministry oversight to ensure ongoing compliance? Although union spokesman, Paul French, couldn't reveal personal information, when I called former employee Larry Chambers, he said he believes his repeated comments about the embankment played a part in his termination.

"No doubt," he said, "and if there's more problems, they'll have 300 more whistleblowers to deal with."

Disgruntled shareholders are contemplating a classaction lawsuit over the decreased value of their investments.

How about we do likewise for the damage done to our environment and wildlife - because if you don't care about this heartbreaking destruction, then you shouldn't be living in British Columbia.

rimco@shaw.ca