Dan MacLennan, Courier-Islander, November 26, 2010

Arsenic levels in the Quinsam River watershed are increasing because of the Quinsam Coal Mine, says the UBC scientist studying the issue, and to suggest otherwise - as the company has done - is a "gross distortion" of the facts.

Dr. William Cullen presented his updated Quinsam watershed study to city council Tuesday night. The "disturbing findings" show arsenic levels increasing in Long Lake sediments below the mine. Arsenic sediments are more toxic to organisms than normal. Arsenic is increasingly available to organisms as far away as the lower Quinsam River.

Cullen said study data shows sulphates and arsenic are clearly coming from the mine, and coming at an increasing rate.

Company officials say there's no connection between mining the arsenic. Cullen scoffed at that Tuesday.

"The company has known of our results for quite some time, over a year," he told councillors. "They have not mentioned our numbers in public at all. They are not mentioned in their current report. And to say that the results that we are getting are in the same order of magnitude as were there before, is a gross distortion."

Last month Gary Gould, vice president of Quinsam mine owner Hillsborough Resources, said "we don't see the mining activity exasperating [sic] the level of arsenic in the sediments in Long Lake."

"Testing that was done on Long Lake prior to mining, indicated that the lake sediments had elevated arsenic levels in the same range that we're seeing in the testing that's being done now. Long Lake has elevated arsenic."

Cullen rejected that as a gross distortion of the facts. He said other lakes in the area don't have similar arsenic levels.

"Long Lake sediment is unique," he said. "It is unlike any other bits of sediment around here. So there's something funny going on in Long Lake."

"We are producing results that are not very favorable to the mine, nevertheless these are what we get," Cullen said later in his half-hour presentation. "I don't think you can dispute our findings at all in any way. It is really impossible to disagree with them. They are facts and the facts are disturbing."

Among those disturbing facts, Cullen said a newer study has found the arsenic in Long Lake sediment is "acutely more bio-available" and therefore more toxic to mud shrimp "than ordinary arsenic minerals are."

While the arsenic is not found in high levels in the water, Cullen said data suggests it is becoming more mobile through the organisms that accumulate it. A "rather disturbing" example comes from the Quinsam River next to the playground in Elk Falls park where the amount of arsenic found in freshwater mussels has more than doubled since 1997.

"You'll notice we've now gone from three parts per million in those mussels to seven or eight," he told councillors. "It's fairly obvious that the arsenic in the mussels in lower Quinsam River has increased drastically over this period. Long term mussel monitoring suggests that the arsenic in the Quinsam River became more available to mussels after 1997."

Cullen said increasing sulphate levels in Long Lake water are not the result of accumulation. Because the lake flushes over the space of a year, he said, increasing sulphate levels in the water point to increased introduction of sulphates from the mine.

"Recently there's been a humongous increase in the sulphate levels in Middle Quinsam Lake as well," he said.

Cullen's study was prepared for the Canadian Water Network by the Environmental Sciences Group at Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia. It came at a time where the mine has applied to expand production through a new 7 South underground mine. The mine would include a 7-hectare surface disturbance for the mine portal, overburden dump, topsoil stockpiles and water-management structures. Plans call for the extraction of 1,706,800 tonnes of raw coal from 2011 to 2014. Because waste materials - coarse coal rejects (CCR) - can generate acid when exposed to air, the amendment application also calls for former open pit mines to be flooded so that the CCR can be stored under water.

But Cullen said Tuesday it's "not a good idea" to store CCR in flooded pits because the material can continue to produce sulphates and arsenic under water.

Overall, Cullen said the long term prospects for the arsenic sediment are even more alarming.

"The bad news is this," he said. "The arsenic is in the sediment right now. Over time, when that lake gets filled in by organic matter, as all lakes do, the arsenic is going to be released into the water. This is a long term process, but at the moment, that arsenic store will be guaranteed to be released."

A coalition of local groups wants the city to call on Victoria for a full Provincial Environmental Assessment of the Quinsam Coal proposal. The proposal is instead in the midst of a Mine Development Review Process through the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources.

"An Environmental Assessment will help ensure that Hillsborough's project is as clean as possible," said a September letter to city council from the Campbell River Environmental Committee (CREC), the Greenways Land Trust, the Haig-Brown Institute, the Campbell River Estuary Group and the Campbell River Retired Teachers' Association. "The Campbell, a BC Heritage River, is our river system, our priceless heritage. Both the salmonoids and the Quinsam Hatchery depend upon it. Salmonoids cannot speak out, but we can. Please keep the future needs of our salmonoids in mind."

In an April report, released in concert with the watershed study, Cullen said "We believe that the proposal requires a second look in the form of a thorough environmental review." He said Quinsam Coal has known "for some time that arsenic concentrations in Long Lake sediments are above Provincial guidelines, yet little has been done to establish the source or duration of this problem. No real attempts at mitigation have been made."

© Courier-Islander (Campbell River) 2010

Source

Environmental Investigation of the Quinsam Watershed
Dr. Cullen's April 2010 report, referred to in this article