Kamloops Council Urges BC, Ottawa to Re-Think Ajax Mine Environmental Assessment

A group of Kamloops city councillors are asking the provincial and federal governments to consider concerns about the Ajax Mine they say were unaddressed by B.C.’s environmental assessment.

The proposal for the gold and copper mine by the Polish firm KGHM Polska Miedz has been controversial, with concerns including mining dust, air quality impacts, tailings pond management, slope stability and watershed safety.

“We feel our concerns as a city, as councillors and staff, have been completely ignored and it feels like the Environmental Assessment Office has been in bed with KGHM,” Kamloops city councilor Tina Lange told DeSmog Canada.

City council has voted to send an itemized list of concerns to elected officials before the final project decision is made.

“I’m pro mining. I’m pro resource development,” Lange said. “But this project doesn’t make sense. It’s too big and too close to the city and we felt like our concerns were not heard by the Environmental Assessment Office.

“It was as if they were helping the mine tailor-make an application that the EA branch could rubber stamp.”

The province is expected to make a decision on the project this fall.

Last fall KGHM asked the federal and provincial governments to put the review process on pause so the company could respond to the more than 2,000 comments submitted by the city, members of the public, local First Nations and the province.

The Environmental Assessment Office agreed to delay the 180-day review time frame until the company could respond to the comments.

Community members and city councillors expressed concern that the three-kilometre wide open-pit mine, which will be in operation for up to 23 years a mere two kilometres from local homes, will significantly affect local air quality.

Kamloops, which is situated in a natural valley, has been home to some of the worst air quality in the world lately, due to smoke from B.C.’s forest fires, Lange said.

Major concerns about water quality were also raised, with locals saying KGHM did not give an adequate account of how toxic runoff from the mine’s waste rock would be prevented from leaching into local waterways.

In addition, residents took issue with the project’s tailings pond facility that sits perched above residential areas.

Now, with the release of a 460-page joint provincial-federal assessment report, Kamloops representatives feel much of their involvement wasn’t worth the time.

While the Kamloops city council voted early this week to send their list of concerns to elected officials, one councilor felt the plan didn’t go far enough.

Voting against the plan was councillor Dennis Walsh, a long-time opponent of the Ajax mine and vocal advocate for local First Nations.

Walsh introduced a new motion asking the leaders of B.C.’s three main political parties to suspend the environmental assessment process. He cited Indigenous rights, environmental risks and municipal decision-making authority in his bid.

“It’s important that as a community we stick together on these issues,” Walsh told Infotel.ca. “It’s been made very clear on council and with (the Nation) that this mine will have a very harming risk and adverse effect on the community.”

Walsh also proposed an additional motion to support the Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc Nation in its fight against the project, which is proposed on the nation’s unceded traditional territory.