I would like my readers (and anyone else who may stop by) to have a look at http://povertyolympics.ca and spread the word if you could.
This unique idea was mentioned to me today. There will also be a rally in 100 Mile House on Saturday for this cause.
Most of us know by now that instead of providing low cost housing for the poor in BC the just legislated the homeless out of sight for the olympics. And most likely longer.
Its' a real travesty that a government who doubled a problem in the first place can't bring themselves to admit it and then just sweep it under the rug.
• Homelessness: doubled in Greater Vancouver between 2002 and 2005 alone — there are now more than 2,000 people living on the streets or in shelters. Hundreds search through the garbage for food and things to sell every day.
• Welfare: It’s supposed to provide a minimum amount of money for basic necessities when people go through a hard time. But our provincial government made it even harder to get, and the rates are less than half the poverty line (not enough to rent a place to live and eat nutritious food).
• Disease: Vancouver’s poorest neighbourhood, the Downtown Eastside, has an HIV rate of 30% — the same as Botswana’s. Other diseases like Hepatitis C are rampant.
• A Gold Medal for Highest Poverty Rate: British Columbia (our province) is a gold medalist when it comes to poverty — we’ve had the highest child poverty rate in all of Canada six years in a row.
• Solutions: It’s not too late to make a difference before 2010. Our governments need to invest more in things like a decent welfare program and social housing… For a fraction of what it costs to deal with disease, malnutrition, addiction, and disorder.
See World Class Poverty section for more information and sources.
1/25/2010
1/24/2010
Campbell Issues Certificate And Could Care Less About Historical Site Legislation
But first A little about historical sights
I recently received an answer to a email from Chief ?Esdilagh where I had asked if there were any archeological sights at Fish Lake. His answer in part is
"archaeology sites are located all around
the lake where one is 7000 years old. you can go to the Canadian
Environmental Assessment Agency registry to get more details."
So I went to the sight and looked up the following,
Legislation
British Columbia’s archaeological sites are protected under the Heritage Conservation Act (HCA). This Act is the latest in a number of pieces of legislation focused on the protection of archaeological sites. Previous legislation includes Indian Graves Ordinance Act of 1865, Historic Objects Preservation Act (1925), the Archaeological and Historic Sites Protection Act (1960 and 1977), superceded by the HCA (1994 and 1996).
http://a100.gov.bc.ca/appsdata/epic/html/deploy/epic_document_6_31888.html
Have a look at Page 19 0f EAO findings
I recently received an answer to a email from Chief ?Esdilagh where I had asked if there were any archeological sights at Fish Lake. His answer in part is
"archaeology sites are located all around
the lake where one is 7000 years old. you can go to the Canadian
Environmental Assessment Agency registry to get more details."
So I went to the sight and looked up the following,
Legislation
British Columbia’s archaeological sites are protected under the Heritage Conservation Act (HCA). This Act is the latest in a number of pieces of legislation focused on the protection of archaeological sites. Previous legislation includes Indian Graves Ordinance Act of 1865, Historic Objects Preservation Act (1925), the Archaeological and Historic Sites Protection Act (1960 and 1977), superceded by the HCA (1994 and 1996).
Funny things are happening on my computer.
And then I tried to copy part of the Certificate BS. In it they say that they are concerned about the use of Fish Lake for tailings. I couldn't copy it so here (hopefully) is the site.http://a100.gov.bc.ca/appsdata/epic/html/deploy/epic_document_6_31888.html
Have a look at Page 19 0f EAO findings
Conversation With A MP
| The little girl, who had just opened her book, closed it slowly and said to the total stranger, 'What would you like to talk about?' 'Oh, I don't know,' said the member of parliament. 'How about global warming or universal health care', and he smiles smugly. 'OK,' she said. 'Those could be interesting topics. But let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff - grass. Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, and a horse produces clumps of dried grass. Why do you suppose that is?' The BC MP, visibly surprised by the little girl's intelligence, thinks about it and says, 'Hmmm, I have no idea.' To which the little girl replies, 'Do you really feel qualified to discuss global warming or universal health care when you don't know shit?' |
1/20/2010
Even After This Campbell Pushed Ahead
From www.protectfishlake.ca
Williams Lake, November 12, 2009 – A team of mining experts reviewing Taseko Mines Ltd.’s proposed Prosperity Gold-Copper Mine Project has concluded that the information provided to date “does not permit a reasoned evaluation of potential adverse effects to water quality, water quantity, fish and wildlife under variable conditions.”
“This study raises the alarm,” says Chief Marilyn Baptiste, Xeni Gwet’in First Nation. “As the traditional caretakers of these lands and waters, we have asked the Panel reviewing this Project to demand more credible and accurate information from Taseko so that we can properly understand the environmental and human health risks that we are facing.”
The study conducted by renowned Colorado-based Stratus Consulting concludes that Taseko’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Project “vastly underestimate the uncertainties in site water balance.” The report notes that Taseko has relied on limited data to predict or prepare for extreme weather events: “After operations, they propose leaving their mine waste in place with no active controls. One extreme weather event at any point in the future could lead to an uncontrolled release of mine waste, which could have severe adverse consequences for the trout and salmon fishery of the Taseko River.” The Taseko River flows into the Chilcotin River, which empties into the Fraser River.[snip]
Can there be any doubt that this Environmental Certificate issued by the Campbell Cabal was done in the name of the almighty dollar. It sure as christ wasn't done to protect the people or environment of this province.
Campbell, I'm going to fire your ass.
Williams Lake, November 12, 2009 – A team of mining experts reviewing Taseko Mines Ltd.’s proposed Prosperity Gold-Copper Mine Project has concluded that the information provided to date “does not permit a reasoned evaluation of potential adverse effects to water quality, water quantity, fish and wildlife under variable conditions.”
“This study raises the alarm,” says Chief Marilyn Baptiste, Xeni Gwet’in First Nation. “As the traditional caretakers of these lands and waters, we have asked the Panel reviewing this Project to demand more credible and accurate information from Taseko so that we can properly understand the environmental and human health risks that we are facing.”
The study conducted by renowned Colorado-based Stratus Consulting concludes that Taseko’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Project “vastly underestimate the uncertainties in site water balance.” The report notes that Taseko has relied on limited data to predict or prepare for extreme weather events: “After operations, they propose leaving their mine waste in place with no active controls. One extreme weather event at any point in the future could lead to an uncontrolled release of mine waste, which could have severe adverse consequences for the trout and salmon fishery of the Taseko River.” The Taseko River flows into the Chilcotin River, which empties into the Fraser River.[snip]
Can there be any doubt that this Environmental Certificate issued by the Campbell Cabal was done in the name of the almighty dollar. It sure as christ wasn't done to protect the people or environment of this province.
Campbell, I'm going to fire your ass.
Minings Pollution Legacy
The Legacy of
Acid Mine Drainage
AMD IS THE MINING INDUSTRY’S GREATEST
environmental problem and its greatest liability,
especially to our waterways. An acid-generating
mine has the potential for long-term, devastating
impacts on rivers, streams and aquatic life,
becoming in effect a “perpetual pollution
machine.”
salmonids,” says Father Brandt, a local activist,
fisherman, and director of the Steelhead
Society. “It is a scientific fact that the amount of
copper that finds its way yearly into the Tsolum
watersheds kills young salmon and deters adult
salmon escaping back to the river to spawn.”
In the US, AMD and other toxins from
abandoned mines have polluted 180,000 acres
of reservoirs and lakes and 12,000 miles of
streams and rivers.(8) It has been estimated that
cleaning up these polluted waterways will
cost US taxpayers between $32 billion and
$72 billion.(9)
In Canada, there are an estimated 351 millions
tonnes of waste rock, 510 million tonnes
of sulphide tailings, and more than 55 million
tonnes of other mining sources which have the
potential to cause AMD.(10) Cleanup at existing
acid-generating mines in Canada will cost
between $2 billion and $5 billion.(11)
Not only is AMD treatment and collection
very costly to the environment, it is a big bill for
industry. According to T.D. Pearse Resource
Consulting, “Site stabilization costs can be as high
as $410,000 per hectare.”(12) The U.S. Bureau of
Mines estimates that the US industry spends over
$1 million each day to treat acidic mine water.(13)
Unfortunately, the province of BC is prominent
on maps identifying Canada’s AMD pollution
sites. The Mount Washington mine is only
one of 25 mines (operating, closed and abandoned)
in BC that are currently acid-generating,
while at least 17 other sites have been identified
as potentially acid-generating.14 See map page 13.
By 1994, The BC State of the Environment
Report noted that there were an estimated 240
million tonnes of acid-generating waste rock
and 72 million tonnes of acid-generating mine
tailings in the province. Each year, the stockpile
of acidic and heavy metal-generating tailings
and waste rock from mining in the province
grows by 25 million tonnes.15
Based on the history of Acid Mine Drainage
conservationists fear that several new and proposed
mining developments with AMD potential
could have significant negative impacts on
BC’s waterways and fisheries, most notably
Redfern Resources’ Tulsequah Chief copper
mine on the Taku River
Taseko Mines’ Fish Lake/Prosperity Gold
project in the Chilcotin area, ¥
Princeton Mining’s Huckleberry copper
and gold mine ¥
Royal Oak’s Kemess South copper and gold
mine near the Finlay River by Mackenzie ¥
American Bullion’s Red Chris copper mine
south of the Spatsizi River,
Manalta Coal Ltd’s proposed open-pit Telkwa
mine near Smithers’ Telkwa River and
Bulkley River. ¥
When the mining industry argues that
new mining development is “essential” to our
way of life, it tends to understate the fact that
we could and should achieve many of our metals
needs through better re-use and recycling
of existing metal products. When it comes to
“precious metals” such as gold and diamonds,
the end use poses even more questions about
justifications for the ecological costs exacted.
Some 83 per cent of the 3,200 tonnes of gold
refined throughout the world in 1996 was used
for jewellery.16
Once it starts, AMD can effectively sterilize an
entire water system for generations to come —
turning it into a biological wasteland and a huge
economic burden.
8 Robert Kleinman, Acid Mine Drainage: US Bureau of Mines Researches
Control Methods for Coal and Metal Mines, US Bureau of Mines, July
1989
9 Jessica Speart, “A Lust for Gold,” Mother Jones (Jan-Feb 1995), p.60
10 Government of Canada, ibid, pp. 10-11
11 Financial Post, November 17, 1994
12 T.D. Pearse Resource Consulting, Mining and the Environment,
March 1996, p. 14.
13 Robert Kleinman, ibid.
14 Bill Price and John Errington, ibid, pp. 68-69
15 BC State of the Environment Report 1993, Government of BC,
Victoria, 1994, p. 25
16 Gilles Coutrurier, Canadian Minerals Yearbook 1995, Natural
Resources Canada, Ottawa 1996 p.28.13
Acid Mine Drainage
AMD IS THE MINING INDUSTRY’S GREATEST
environmental problem and its greatest liability,
especially to our waterways. An acid-generating
mine has the potential for long-term, devastating
impacts on rivers, streams and aquatic life,
becoming in effect a “perpetual pollution
machine.”
At the abandoned Mount Washington mine
on Vancouver Island, open pits of sulphide bearing
pyrite ore lie exposed to the elements,
along with 130,000 tonnes of waste rock. The sulphide
sulphur in the ore continually reacts with
air and water to form sulphuric acid, which leaches
out the heavy metals, especially copper. This
toxic copper leachate passes into Pyrrhotite
Creek, then Murex Creek and from there into the
whole Tsolum river watershed.
“Copper is the dreaded enemy of youngsalmonids,” says Father Brandt, a local activist,
fisherman, and director of the Steelhead
Society. “It is a scientific fact that the amount of
copper that finds its way yearly into the Tsolum
watersheds kills young salmon and deters adult
salmon escaping back to the river to spawn.”
In the US, AMD and other toxins from
abandoned mines have polluted 180,000 acres
of reservoirs and lakes and 12,000 miles of
streams and rivers.(8) It has been estimated that
cleaning up these polluted waterways will
cost US taxpayers between $32 billion and
$72 billion.(9)
In Canada, there are an estimated 351 millions
tonnes of waste rock, 510 million tonnes
of sulphide tailings, and more than 55 million
tonnes of other mining sources which have the
potential to cause AMD.(10) Cleanup at existing
acid-generating mines in Canada will cost
between $2 billion and $5 billion.(11)
Not only is AMD treatment and collection
very costly to the environment, it is a big bill for
industry. According to T.D. Pearse Resource
Consulting, “Site stabilization costs can be as high
as $410,000 per hectare.”(12) The U.S. Bureau of
Mines estimates that the US industry spends over
$1 million each day to treat acidic mine water.(13)
Unfortunately, the province of BC is prominent
on maps identifying Canada’s AMD pollution
sites. The Mount Washington mine is only
one of 25 mines (operating, closed and abandoned)
in BC that are currently acid-generating,
while at least 17 other sites have been identified
as potentially acid-generating.14 See map page 13.
By 1994, The BC State of the Environment
Report noted that there were an estimated 240
million tonnes of acid-generating waste rock
and 72 million tonnes of acid-generating mine
tailings in the province. Each year, the stockpile
of acidic and heavy metal-generating tailings
and waste rock from mining in the province
grows by 25 million tonnes.15
Based on the history of Acid Mine Drainage
conservationists fear that several new and proposed
mining developments with AMD potential
could have significant negative impacts on
BC’s waterways and fisheries, most notably
Redfern Resources’ Tulsequah Chief copper
mine on the Taku River
Taseko Mines’ Fish Lake/Prosperity Gold
project in the Chilcotin area, ¥
Princeton Mining’s Huckleberry copper
and gold mine ¥
Royal Oak’s Kemess South copper and gold
mine near the Finlay River by Mackenzie ¥
American Bullion’s Red Chris copper mine
south of the Spatsizi River,
Manalta Coal Ltd’s proposed open-pit Telkwa
mine near Smithers’ Telkwa River and
Bulkley River. ¥
International Skyline’s Bronson Slope Mine
on the Lower Iskut River
on the Lower Iskut River
When the mining industry argues that
new mining development is “essential” to our
way of life, it tends to understate the fact that
we could and should achieve many of our metals
needs through better re-use and recycling
of existing metal products. When it comes to
“precious metals” such as gold and diamonds,
the end use poses even more questions about
justifications for the ecological costs exacted.
Some 83 per cent of the 3,200 tonnes of gold
refined throughout the world in 1996 was used
for jewellery.16
Once it starts, AMD can effectively sterilize an
entire water system for generations to come —
turning it into a biological wasteland and a huge
economic burden.
8 Robert Kleinman, Acid Mine Drainage: US Bureau of Mines Researches
Control Methods for Coal and Metal Mines, US Bureau of Mines, July
1989
9 Jessica Speart, “A Lust for Gold,” Mother Jones (Jan-Feb 1995), p.60
10 Government of Canada, ibid, pp. 10-11
11 Financial Post, November 17, 1994
12 T.D. Pearse Resource Consulting, Mining and the Environment,
March 1996, p. 14.
13 Robert Kleinman, ibid.
14 Bill Price and John Errington, ibid, pp. 68-69
15 BC State of the Environment Report 1993, Government of BC,
Victoria, 1994, p. 25
16 Gilles Coutrurier, Canadian Minerals Yearbook 1995, Natural
Resources Canada, Ottawa 1996 p.28.13
1/19/2010
Water Pollution and Mining
There are four main types of impacts on water from mining
from www.landkeepers.ca
1. Acid Mine Drainage
Acid Rock Drainage (ARD) is a natural process
whereby sulphuric acid is produced when sulphides
in rocks are exposed to air and water.
Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) is essentially the
same process, greatly magnified. When large
quantities of rock containing sulphide minerals
are excavated from an open pit or opened up in
an underground mine, it reacts with water and
oxygen to create sulphuric acid. When the water
reaches a certain level of acidity, a naturally
occurring type of bacteria called Thiobacillus ferroxidans
may kick in, accelerating the oxidation
and acidification processes, leaching even more
trace metals from the wastes.
The acid will leach from the rock as long as its
source rock is exposed to air and water and until
the sulphides are leached out – a process that
can last hundreds, even thousands of years.
Acid is carried off the minesite by rainwater or
surface drainage and deposited into nearby
streams, rivers, lakes and groundwater. AMD
severely degrades water quality, and can kill
aquatic life and make water virtually unusable.
2. Heavy Metal Contamination & Leaching
Heavy metal pollution is caused when such metals
as arsenic, cobalt, copper, cadmium, lead,
silver and zinc contained in excavated rock or
exposed in an underground mine come in contact
with water. Metals are leached out and carried
downstream as water washes over the rock
surface. Although metals can become mobile in
neutral pH conditions, leaching is particularly
accelerated in the low pH conditions such as are
created by Acid Mine Drainage.
3. Processing Chemicals Pollution
This kind of pollution occurs when chemical
agents (such as cyanide or sulphuric acid used
by mining companies to separate the target mineral
from the ore) spill, leak, or leach from the
mine site into nearby water bodies. These chemicals
can be highly toxic to humans and wildlife.
4. Erosion and Sedimentation
Mineral development disturbs soil and rock in
the course of constructing and maintaining
roads, open pits, and waste impoundments. In
the absence of adequate prevention and control
strategies, erosion of the exposed earth may
carry substantial amounts of sediment into
streams, rivers and lakes. Excessive sediment
can clog riverbeds and smother watershed vegetation,
wildlife habitat and aquatic organisms.
So you see that some commenters in online publications have spun the fact that there is a natural eroded way of very slowly leaking some pollutants into creeksby making it seem that this is equal to what mining does. But it is the large scale mines that expose huge amounts of metals and minerals to oxygen and water that cause vast amounts of pollution in our lakes and streams.
And to Arbitrarly fill a native fish bearing lake with byproduct pollutants is utterly assinine
There can be no other conclusion to this ruination of the Taseko, Chilco, Chilcotin, and Fraser watershed than the pursuit of the almighty dollar at the expense of your health and the loss of a pristine fish bearing and spawning area of this Province.
from www.landkeepers.ca
1. Acid Mine Drainage
Acid Rock Drainage (ARD) is a natural process
whereby sulphuric acid is produced when sulphides
in rocks are exposed to air and water.
Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) is essentially the
same process, greatly magnified. When large
quantities of rock containing sulphide minerals
are excavated from an open pit or opened up in
an underground mine, it reacts with water and
oxygen to create sulphuric acid. When the water
reaches a certain level of acidity, a naturally
occurring type of bacteria called Thiobacillus ferroxidans
may kick in, accelerating the oxidation
and acidification processes, leaching even more
trace metals from the wastes.
The acid will leach from the rock as long as its
source rock is exposed to air and water and until
the sulphides are leached out – a process that
can last hundreds, even thousands of years.
Acid is carried off the minesite by rainwater or
surface drainage and deposited into nearby
streams, rivers, lakes and groundwater. AMD
severely degrades water quality, and can kill
aquatic life and make water virtually unusable.
2. Heavy Metal Contamination & Leaching
Heavy metal pollution is caused when such metals
as arsenic, cobalt, copper, cadmium, lead,
silver and zinc contained in excavated rock or
exposed in an underground mine come in contact
with water. Metals are leached out and carried
downstream as water washes over the rock
surface. Although metals can become mobile in
neutral pH conditions, leaching is particularly
accelerated in the low pH conditions such as are
created by Acid Mine Drainage.
3. Processing Chemicals Pollution
This kind of pollution occurs when chemical
agents (such as cyanide or sulphuric acid used
by mining companies to separate the target mineral
from the ore) spill, leak, or leach from the
mine site into nearby water bodies. These chemicals
can be highly toxic to humans and wildlife.
4. Erosion and Sedimentation
Mineral development disturbs soil and rock in
the course of constructing and maintaining
roads, open pits, and waste impoundments. In
the absence of adequate prevention and control
strategies, erosion of the exposed earth may
carry substantial amounts of sediment into
streams, rivers and lakes. Excessive sediment
can clog riverbeds and smother watershed vegetation,
wildlife habitat and aquatic organisms.
So you see that some commenters in online publications have spun the fact that there is a natural eroded way of very slowly leaking some pollutants into creeksby making it seem that this is equal to what mining does. But it is the large scale mines that expose huge amounts of metals and minerals to oxygen and water that cause vast amounts of pollution in our lakes and streams.
And to Arbitrarly fill a native fish bearing lake with byproduct pollutants is utterly assinine
There can be no other conclusion to this ruination of the Taseko, Chilco, Chilcotin, and Fraser watershed than the pursuit of the almighty dollar at the expense of your health and the loss of a pristine fish bearing and spawning area of this Province.
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