Reading Room
Backgrounders
Acid Mine Drainage and Cleanup Overview
Chris Zimmer : May 18.2007May 2007: When Cominco abandoned the Tulsequah Chief and Big Bull mines in the 1950’s it never cleaned up the toxic legacy of acid mine drainage and heavy metals. Since then these two mine sites have poured tons of these poisons into the waters of the salmon-rich Taku watershed. Redcorp Ventures now owns the two mines and is thus responsible for cleanup. But Redcorp seems more interested in re-opening the Tulsequah Chief mine then in stopping the pollution and Canadian federal and British Columbia provincial regulatory agencies are letting them get away with this.
Click here for more information.
Acid Mine Drainage data
Chris Zimmer : May 18.2007This memo provides calculations for the annual amount of toxic heavy metals that leak into the Taku Watershed from the Tulsequah Chief mine. This is the latest data we have. Repeated requests for more recent and comprehensive information have been repeatedly denied by Environment Canada, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, BC and Redcorp.
Click here for the full memo.
Environment Canada Cleanup Extension letter
Chris Zimmer : May 18.2007Click here to see the letter in which Environment Canada agreed to extend Redcorp’s deadline for Acid Mine Drainage cleanup.
Chronology of Cleanup Orders and Actions
Chris Zimmer : May 18.2007This chronology lists important actions and events related to the Acid Mine Drainage problem at the Tulsequah Chief and Big Bull mine sites from 1957 to date. It demonstrates a history of lax enforcement of laws designed to prevent pollution from mine sites.
Click here for the full chronology.
Unuk River Backgrounder
admin : Mar 3.2007Click here to Download [PDF]
Taku River Backgrounder
admin : Mar 3.2001Click here to download [PDF]