Yellowknife demands EA for Giant cleanup

The City of Yellowknife has invoked a little-used federal law to force the Contaminants and Remediation Directorate (CARD) of Canada's Department of Indian and Northern Affairs to complete an environmental assessment of its remediation plans for 237,000 metric tons of arsenic stored within the city limits.

CARD, in cooperation with the Government of the Northwest Territories, proposes to render harmless, mounds of arsenic trioxide dust left behind in 15 underground chambers by owners of the abandoned Giant Mine, once a mainstay of the Yellowknife economy. The agency applied in October to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board for a water license needed to conduct the remediation program which is estimated to cost at least C$300 million and as much as C$900 million. The Land and Water Board concluded in February that an environmental assessment would not be needed for the project.

Yellowknife officials disagreed. On March 31, the city referred CARD's water license application for completion of an environmental assessment under authority granted by provisions of the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act.

The arsenic dust, a by-product of at least 50 years of ore processing at the Giant Mine, resulted during production of more than 7 million ounces of gold in open pit and underground mining that began in the 1930s and operated nearly continuously between 1948 and 1998. CARD proposes to install a system that will maintain the arsenic in a frozen state underground and prevent significant quantities of it from leaking into the area's groundwater.

The plan will result in the rate of arsenic released into the environment from the site decreasing to 402 kilograms per year from the current level of 642 kilograms annually, according to the federal agency. CARD points out that the current level of arsenic release is relatively low because of care and maintenance already in place at the remediation site. Without that effort, the agency said many thousands of kilograms of arsenic could be released into the environment every year.

Yellowknife seeks thorough review

Yellowknife's request for an environmental assessment would normally trigger one automatically, had it asked for one when the land and water board was deciding whether to perform one, officials say.

But the city thought other agencies with the authority to trigger an EA would do so. When no one else came forward, Yellowknife city leaders took up the issue.

"The basis for the referral is that the proposed activities to take place during the term of the Water License will have, in the City's opinion, an adverse impact on the environment within its municipal boundaries," wrote Yellowknife Mayor Gordon Van Tighem in a letter to the review board.

"The Giant Mine commenced operations in the 1930s and the ore body that was mined there had a high concentration of arsenic. As a consequence, there are serious issues respecting arsenic contamination and environmental remediation which are of concern to the City and the people of Yellowknife, and which may have significant adverse effects on the environment in the City," Van Tighem wrote.

He also cited an outpouring of concern from Yellowknife citizens before and during a March 18 City Council meeting. After listening to testimony, Yellowknife's City Council voted in favor of requiring CARD to perform an EA of the project.

The councilors agreed that there was enough public concern to warrant further scrutiny of the plan, which will involve filling in waste tailings ponds and removing decrepit buildings along with freezing the poisonous dust stored in 15 stopes and chambers underground.

The councilors rejected the Land and Water Board's argument that an environmental assessment would result in an unnecessary delay for the cleanup.

The environmental assessment is expected to take three years to complete.

Unprecedented action

Though no local government has successfully forced Canadian regulators to perform an EA in the past, Yellowknife has the authority to do so under federal law, according to Kevin O'Reilly, a former Yellowknife city councilor and environmental activist.

"If that authority is not used for something as serious as a (C$300 million to C$400 million) project that sets up a perpetual care situation, when would the city ever exercise that authority?" asked O'Reilly.

In written comments submitted with the mayor's letter to the review board, O'Reilly noted that when Miramar Giant went bankrupt, the mine reverted to the federal and territorial governments and Yellowknife was left trying to collect C$700,000 in back taxes or grants-in-lieu from Government of the Northwest Territories with no agreement for recovering those funds.

"Every time the city has dealt with the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and GNWT on the Giant mine, the city has come out on the short end of the stick, to put it mildly," O'Reilly said.

Chief Edward Sangris and Chief Fred Sangris of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation noted that the independent and comprehensive nature of an environmental assessment would go a long way toward providing their members with a level of comfort that the mine reclamation will proceed in a manner that puts the interests of Yellowknife citizens and YKDFN members first.

Van Tighem also told the review board that "the pending abandonment and restoration of the site will permanently reduce the city's existing land base and will eventually cost the city a substantial sum."

The actual mine area encompasses about 851 hectares, or 353 acres, which is 8.3 percent of Yellowknife's total land area.

"As such, there is need to mitigate the impact through some type of compensation or changes to municipal boundaries to maintain a comparable land quantum and effective property tax base for the city," he said.