Canadian Environment Minister Sued Over Unreported Mine Waste

Canadian Environment Minister Sued Over Unreported Mine Waste



November 2007 
 Two conservation groups 
launched legal action today against Canada's Minister of Environment 
seeking to force the reporting of what they claim are "hundreds of 
millions of kilos of toxic mining waste being kept secret from the 
Canadian public." 
The public interest law firm Ecojustice filed the lawsuit in federal court 
on behalf of MiningWatch Canada and Great Lakes United, an international 
citizens coalition that works to preserve and restore the Great Lakes-St. 
Lawrence River ecosystem on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. 
The complaint alleges that Minister John Baird broke the law when he 
directed mining companies to ignore their legal responsibility to report 
millions of kilos of pollution from their operations under the National 
Pollutant Release Inventory.

"The law is clear - mining companies in Canada are legally required to 
report the amount of chemicals they are releasing into the environment," 
said Justin Duncan, staff lawyer with Ecojustice. 
"Instead, at the direction of the Minister of Environment, these companies 
continue to flout the law by not reporting massive amounts of toxic 
tailings they dump into our environment each year," Duncan said. 
By contrast, the U.S. government has required mining companies to report 
the amounts of pollutants generated by their operations under the U.S. 
Toxics Release Inventory, TRI, since 1998, he said. 
Despite the fact that the U.S. mining industry comprises only 72 of the 
23,566 industrial facilities filing TRI reports to the U.S. government, 
Duncan cites government figures showing that in 2005 the mines released 
more than 530 million kilos of pollutants - accounting for 27 percent of 
all pollutants reported across the United States. 
Duncan says mine tailings and waste rock accounted for more than 97 
percent of the total pollutants reported by the U.S. mining industry. 
It is the data on these pollutants that are being withheld from the 
Canadian public, the groups claim. 
"Given the enormous amounts of carcinogens and heavy metals like lead and 
mercury in U.S. mine tailings, it is absurd that Canadian mines are being 
let off the hook," said Joan Kuyek from MiningWatch Canada. 
The 80 metal mining facilities that reported to Canada's National 
Pollutant Release Inventory in 2006 were from: Ontario(33), Quebec(19), 
BC(9), Manitoba(6), Saskatchewan(6), Newfoundland(3), New Brunswick(2), 
Nunavut(2), the groups say. 
 
"From Smithers to Voisey's Bay, Canadians have a right to know what - and 
how much - pollution the mining industry is releasing into our air, water, 
and soil," said Kuyek. 
"Two weeks ago the Minister of the Environment stood on the shore of Lake 
Superior with the Prime Minster as they announced the creation of the 
world's largest freshwater marine park," said John Jackson of Great Lakes 
United. "At the same time he protects the mining industry by hiding the 
toxic pollution that could spoil this ecosystem for generations." 
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the creation of Canada’s newest 
National Marine Conservation Area on October 25. More than 10,000 square 
kilometers of Lake Superior, including the lakebed, islands and 
shorelands, will become the largest freshwater marine protected area in 
the world. 
On the Ontario side of the lake, there are five gold mines and one 
palladium mine in production. Hundreds of abandoned mines are scattered 
throughout the area, according to a 2001 report by the nonprofit group 
Northwatch. 
The active mines on Canada's Superior coast are among the country’s 
largest, including the open pit and underground gold mines of the Hemlo 
camp and the expanded palladium mine at Lac des Iles, north of Thunder 
Bay, Ontario. 

---