Alberta promises to closely monitor new mines, but reduces oversight of coal-contaminated rivers

Alberta government documents show repeated reductions in environmental monitoring, despite some waterway pollutants above thresholds that may cause increased monitoring.

The state’s 2019 five-year surveillance program shows that two river stations and a selenium-contaminated stream from a coal mine have been suspended. It was despite more than 20 years of reading that the Alberta Environmental Guidelines suggest that it should be more noticeable.

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The only station still in operation is on the McLeod River, about 200 kilometers downstream of the old Cheviot mine.

The United Conservative government has pointed out “strict regulatory standards” in an increasingly heated debate over plans to increase coal mines in the Rocky Mountains.

“It’s clear that the government is undermining the very protection they claim to be in place,” said Marlin Schmidt, an environmental critic of the opposition New Democratic Party.

According to an independent analysis of government data, the McCloud and Gregg rivers and Lasker Creek in the hills of Rocky Mountain east of Jasper, Arta were heavily polluted downstream of the mine with high levels of toxic selenium. ..

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Despite years of landfill, it was almost nine times higher on the Greg River and 11 times higher on Lasker Creek. They were six times higher on the McLeod River.

Former Alberta Science Secretary Bill Donahue found that the selenium levels in all samples of the Greg River and Luscar Creek were well above the so-called “alert” levels of the Alberta environment.

Almost half of the McLeod River samples also crossed that line. This is believed to trigger enhanced monitoring in accordance with the state’s 2018 Environmental Quality Guidelines.

“Excessive alert concentrations in sensitive environments indicate the need for enhanced monitoring of water and other ecosystem components to support early detection of in vivo accumulation of selenium.”

The Alberta environment did not respond to requests for comment.

Environment Minister Jason Nixon and other members of the UCP caucuses have repeatedly stated that the new mine will be subject to scrutiny.

“The environment, including our important source, remains protected by the Environmental Protection Act,” said UCP’s website, Coal Hard Facts. “Alberta’s water supply is not at risk.

“All coal projects go through a process of strict regulation and consultation.”

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Schmidt called those statements distracting.

“It’s a desperate spin to avoid talking about the real problems of mines,” he said.

“It seems that the government is deliberately ignoring the problem and wants to get rid of it.”

Under both the conservative and NDP administrations, the station was closed after years of monitoring reductions in the Alberta environment.

Budget documents show that money spent tracking what’s happening in Alberta’s air, land and waters peaked at $ 28 million in 2015-16 and has declined since then. is showing. Spending is now $ 22.5 million after a further 5% reduction in the latest budget.

Donahue, who left the government in 2018, said the savings were greater than they seemed, as fixed costs in the surveillance sector remained unchanged.

“The only money available for surveillance and science remains after all these fixed costs have been paid,” he wrote in an email. “These cuts in monitoring and science budgets mean that less and less money is available for in-house monitoring.”

The previous budget also reduced funding for Alberta’s energy regulator, which oversees energy development, by 22%.

Donahue said less surveillance is currently underway than when he joined the department six years ago.

“Every year budget cuts have definitely resulted in a reduction in surveillance and science,” he said.

The government has already sold an exploration lease of approximately 1.4 million hectares of land that holds the headwaters of the rivers that the entire southern Alberta region depends on. Hundreds of drill sites and kilometers of roads have been approved.

The state points out hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in royalties on the state’s financial resources.

More than 100,000 signatures were collected on the petition, and at least six local governments disagreed. Popular Alberta entertainers from Jean Arden to Corb Lund added their criticism.