Compliance Energy held its first and possibly only open house on its proposed Raven Coal Mine in Fanny Bay last Wednesday. Robin Mumblo was there.

The Open House

The hall was very busy all 7 hours. There were folks from as far away as Qualicum Beach, many from Bowser and Deep Bay, some from Spider Lake, many from Union Bay, Courtenay and Comox. Fanny Bay residents were there in droves.  There were at times as many as 15 people at one presentation board, questioning as a group. The same good questions were asked over and over all evening. Many people would have preferred a meeting format, so their questions could create dialog. Many long time residents with knowledge of back roads and waterways commented that they couldn't figure out the maps or the exact location of the mine entrance.

The Mood

The mood was definitely negative, except for the contractors and young men filling out job applications for the 200 full-time jobs that no one at Compliance seems able to list.

Jobs

The Jobs table was directly in line with the entryway. I did finally get one of the engineers to tell me that it takes 6 people per shift to operate the mining equipment, 18 people for a 24 hour a day operation. The 70 coal trucks per day will need drivers, but that is still far short of 200 jobs. Since this is one of Compliance's big selling points, the true number of jobs really needs to be explored.

Chemicals

Many questions were asked but very little information was available. Lab reports are expected in December.

No one at Compliance knows or will tell us anything about chemical content of the coal, except that ours is a very special "Rare" metallurgical coal (2nd board in presentation I think - the one with the picture of golf clubs) used for the steel we all need for cars, toasters, and yes - even for green energy-generating windmills.

When questioned about that "rareness", Compliance CEO John Tapics finally said it was 5% of available coal. When asked if coal was rare, he had to concede that it was not and that 5% of not rare is not rare. When Tapics began answering a woman's methane question with "If there is methane...", I interrupted and asked if as an engineer, he could name an instance when there was coal without methane. He had to say no and rephrase his answer, including pie-in-the sky-methane benefits! 

Water

They don't know where their water will come from or go, how much they will use or how they will protect our watersheds and fisheries. I heard many people ask about the use of the word "Sustainability" on their Environment presentation board.  The shellfish farmers were very vocal, as were people living along 19A who have wells. No info about how to contain runoff and leaching from 1 million tonnes per year of waste piles (50% of what is mined). One engineer said all will be okay because the mine will be in a valley, so there won't be any runoff and water table won't be affected!

Transportation

There is no plan, just lots of maybe's - Duke Point, Campbell River, Port Alberni - train (maybe a grant for the railway hinted at), trucks, barges, container ships - then off to Japan and Korea. 

Compliance tried to be smooth, but the questions from the public were non-stop all evening. I do think they were surprised at the negativity and that so many of the community were older folks, very attached to where they live and not in need of mining jobs.

I did hear one woman tell Tapics that he shouldn't worry about the depth of knowledge and skills in the community to understand and reply to all aspects of the project, as there were many retired engineers, lawyers, and other professionals living here with time and desire to address it all.

Robin Mumblo
Fanny Bay

Robin produced and distributed a handout, Say No to Raven Coal Project, which she distributed at the open house. Download it here.