Highlights
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Nearly six years after the collapse of the tailings dam at Imperial Metal’s Mount Polley mine, no charges for environmental damage have been laid and there is no word on timing of a decision
- Imperial Metals has spent $71 million on rehabilitation work, including on Hazeltine Creek
- Studies on the effect of the spill are expected to continue for years
- See what score you get for your TSF management
- Decipher solves tech challenge for Rio Tinto
- Download this FREE guide to find out about the 57 major tailings dam failures (2000 – 2020)
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There still remains the possibility of more serious indictable charges under the federal Fisheries Act, for which there is no deadline. It allows fines up to $6 million for a first offence and up to $12 million for subsequent offences. A recommendation on charges was delivered in early April 2019 after a 4½-year investigation by a team from Environment Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the B.C. Conservation Officer Service. The federal prosecution office would say nothing in response to Postmedia questions on potential charges, not even to confirm it is reviewing the case 16 months after receiving the charge package. “The PPSC does not discuss which cases it may be reviewing. We have no information to provide at this time,” spokeswoman Nathalie Houle said in an email. The B.C. Prosecution Service, which is assisting the federal prosecution service on the case, also refused to comment. The offices of the provincial and federal ministries of environment also declined to comment on the length of time without charges or the timing of a decision on charges. Each ministry simply repeated a statement from last year on the charge package being delivered to federal prosecutors.“We are unable to comment further as this is now under charge assessment,” Moira Kelly, a spokeswoman for federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, said in an email.Olszynski, who specializes in environmental law and policy at the University of Calgary, said while it appears there’s little question the dam collapse resulted in the deposit of “a deleterious substance” into the environment, the company can use an argument of due diligence to defend itself. While a factor in the federal prosecution’s decision on laying charges is whether it’s in the public interest to do so, a big part of that decision is based on whether they think there’s a reasonable prospect of successful prosecution, said Olszynski.

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- Upload and reference key documentation
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- Capture a wide range of monitoring data and indicators su ch as surface and groundwater, decant pond water levels and quality, and embankment conditions
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- Maintain and track environmental monitoring compliance limits and exceedances
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- Convert your engagements into actionable outcomes
- Forecast, plan and track your sites activities using IBM’s Weather data
- Create corporate report templates and meet requests for data provision from industry groups such as ICMM, Global Tailings Portal, PRI and UNEP
- Integration capability with third party systems or public portals such as the Global Tailings Portal
Want to find out more about tailings storage monitoring?
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