Dan MacLennan, Courier-Islander, Friday, January 15, 2010

Heavy rains and snow melt appear to have caused two effluent spills from a Myra Falls mine tailings pond into Buttle Lake Monday.

But neither mine owner Breakwater Resources nor the Environment Ministry could say what volume of effluent might have spilled into the lake which supplies drinking water to Campbell River.

An Environment Ministry spokesperson said the mine reported two spill events from the effluent treatment system into Myra Creek, which drains into Buttle Lake. The first was early Monday morning "and there was a similar event late on January 11th going into early January 12."

"The ministry is reviewing the causes and potential resolution of the events," he said Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier, Ann Wilkinson, spokesperson for Breakwater Resources, confirmed the first spill.

"My understanding is it's a combination of not only the heavy rains but warm weather," she told the Courier-Islander. "It was raining like heck. This happened very early Monday. My understanding is that this was a discharge of treated water in combination with overflow from Mother Nature, in advance of the normal discharge point. We normally discharge water from the site at a discharge point. It was just further up the system." She said the spill occurred from roughly 1 a.m. to 8 a.m.

"It's been sampled," she said. "These events are very rare but as is always the case we sampled it. The results are outstanding, but our experience is that we don't anticipate any environmental impact."

Wilkinson didn't know when the test results would be available.

News of the spills broke at Tuesday's city council meeting when Operations Manager Ron Neufeld reported that the city had been notified by the mine.

"There was an overflow of one of their tailings ponds," he said. "As a result, some of the tailings water discharged into the Campbell Lake system. Staff are working with NVI Mines in terms of monitoring any impacts on our drinking water and we've also contacted our local VIHA representatives to ensure that there's no risk to the city's drinking water system.

"We have had experiences like this in the past. One of the benefits of our watershed is that it's very, very large and impacts that occur at the top of the lake system - first of all there's a very large diluting factor, and there's also time our side. We anticipate that it might take upwards of three months for any affected water to actually reach the residents.

"Our experiences in the past have been that these types of events have not had any impact at all on our drinking water, however, we are working with VIHA staff, with NVI mining staff as well as our own water department to ensure that we're actively monitoring the quality of our drinking water."

© Courier-Islander (Campbell River) 2010

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