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Gull Bay Chief contests MOECC findings over tailings spill

THUNDER BAY - The chief of Gull Bay First Nation is accusing the provincial government of downplaying the environmental consequences of a tailings pond spill at the Lac Des Iles Mine.
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A plume of mine tailings from Lac Des Iles mine moves along the River Des Iles. Gull Bay Chief Wilfred King believes the MOECC is downplaying the spill's environmental impact. (Submitted Photo)

THUNDER BAY - The chief of Gull Bay First Nation is accusing the provincial government of downplaying the environmental consequences of a tailings pond spill at the Lac Des Iles Mine.

Chief Wilfred King charged the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change with "whitewashing" the damage that occurred on June 4, when a tailings pond sinkhole caved in. The ministry then allowed the mine to release the untreated water into the watershed over concerns a second failed dam could make the spill much worse.

King claimed the MOECC told him the tailings water had a mineral concentration of 1,470mg/l (milligrams per litre). He said the maximum allowed by law is 15mg/l.

"That's a huge concentration of aluminum and iron to be released into the environment," he said.

"We asked what the impact of this would be and they said it would be up to a year before they find out what the environmental impacts will be. For them to say yesterday that they averted a huge environmental disaster is not true."

Lac Des Iles' parent company, North American Palladium stockholders will vote on July 30th to have a hedge fund called Brookfield recapitalize its business. The deal would see Brookfield offer $25-million in bridge loans and take 92 per cent of North American Palladium's common shares as equity.

Considering the timing, King suspected the ministry's presentation of the spill has ulterior motives.

"I think they've abdicated their responsibility toward the protection of the environment," he said.

"I think the mine itself has been in a very precarious situation in terms of its operations and whether or not it's viable, whether or not there's a new buyer that's supposed to be coming on board. I think the Ministry of the Environment is more looking not so much at the environmental impacts but the economic impacts of this spill."

Lisa Brygidyr is the issues projects coordinator for the MOECC in Thunder Bay. She stood behind her Monday statement that any damage that may still occur would have been amplified if the mine tailings had broken a second dam and cascaded into a breach of a million cubic metres of untreated water.

"We may not know the extent until next summer but as it stands right now, we haven't seen any significant impacts other than the turbidity in the plume but it has passed all the standard testings."    




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