To the Editor,
Despite all the uproar, it seems to me that the natural next step one would expect in the Polley Lake mine dam breach situation is already taking place just as it should: The B.C. government has convened an independent panel of engineers with the expertise and experience to do a forensic investigation to determine why the dam failed and how to ensure that it does not happen again.
The expert panel has been given the authority to compel testimony and evidence while the minister in charge, Bill Bennett, has ordered that every tailings pond in B.C., and its associated dam, go through an extraordinary, mandatory independent inspection, to be paid for by the mining companies themselves.
The company involved at the Polley Lake Mine has already started to clean up the site and is preparing a long term remediation plan for the affected water ways.
The government continues to have independent specialists conducting water and sediment contamination tests at multiple sites.
Despite all of this, many special interest groups continue to sensationalise this incident and misrepresent how it is being dealt with when it is clear that all things are unfolding as they should in response to the situation.
Bruce SandersonNorth Vancouver
To the Editor,
It seems to be the ‘ice bucket challenge age,’ so further to that, the challenge for the mine manager to drink the water from the Mt. Polley spill should be sent out to the environmentalists and concerned citizens to monitor and drink a sample of water along the Fraser River.
It would be a movement to provide adequate guidelines and systems to correct the situation, not just to complain about the problems.
Dawn Keyotevia e-mail