By Lissa Alexander, Parksville Qualicum Beach News, July 29, 2010

Environmental groups and residents, including the mayor of Qualicum Beach, are upset that the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) has “quietly” begun a public comment period for the proposed Raven Underground Coal Mine Project.

John Snyder, chair of CoalWatch Comox Valley, a citizens’ group that formed in response to the proposed mine, said he just happened upon the notice online and was taken aback.

“I think the disturbing part was we didn’t get any notice,” he said. “Secondly, they opened a comment period with nothing to comment on, other than some sort of project description on their website which basically says they want to pull coal out of the ground and send it to Port Alberni. There really aren’t any big details involved.”

Although the public comment period has begun, the CEAA is still awaiting a background document giving details on the proposed mine, to “assist the public in providing comments,” the notice states.

Once this document is available, the public will have 30 days to comment.

Snyder said this doesn’t make much sense.

“When you open a public comment period and then there’s no background document to base it on it’s just a cart before the horse,” he said.

Qualicum Beach Mayor Teunis Westbroek said he is upset the public comment is happening at this time.

“We want to stay engaged, we want the community to be engaged through this whole process and at this point in time people are relaxing and trying to have a holiday and the kids are out of school,” he said.

Westbroek said he was impressed that the board of directors at the Regional District of Nanaimo voted last Tuesday to take the premier up on his offer to discuss the project with the appropriate ministers.

“So that’s a good thing if an entire Regional District Board wants to meet with the ministers and say ‘Look we don’t think this is a good idea. You want to be environmentally friendly? You want to have a reduction in greenhouse gases? What are you thinking?”

Westbroek said that this mine is going to cause nothing but problems for things like groundwater, drinking water, aquaculture and air quality.

He said the federal government “slipped” in changes to the environemntal processes in their last budget bill which may account for why this public notice was dropped so suddenly and silently. He said John Snyder ought to be commended for keeping such a close eye on matters concerning the proposed mine.

“He’s providing a whole new definition for watch dog,” he said. “He is good, and we need more people like him.”

Once the documents are made available, Westbroek encourages the public to send their letters to the ministers responsible, as well as their MP’s and MLA’s outlining their concerns with the project.

“Even just a paragraph pointing out the quality of life that we don’t want to lose,” he said. “But more importantly that we don’t want to put a black mark on Vancouver Island and it’s people to create a few jobs for a short time and take the risk of ruining our quality of life and our environment.”

Snyder said that he’s expecting the background documents to be available by the end of July.

“We are just going to wait for those documents to be presented and then we’re going to get the word out to everybody we can.”

The public notice can be found at http://www.ceaa.gc.ca/050/document-eng.cfm?document=44161.

Source