RIVERS WITHOUT BORDERS

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Gov. Palin Urges BC to Clean Up Abandoned Tulsequah Chief Mine

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                             CONTACT: 

July 20, 2009                                     Chris Zimmer, 907/586-2166,

                                                                                    Zimmer@riverswithoutborders.org

Gov. Palin Urges BC to Clean Up Abandoned Tulsequah Chief Mine

Bankrupt Mining Company Ignores Clean Up Order, Removes Water Treatment

Plant from Mine site

(Juneau)  Rivers Without Borders today applauded Governor Sarah Palin and Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Commissioner Tom Irwin for their recent letters to British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell and the court-appointed receiver for bankrupt junior Canadian mining company Redfern Resources urging a prompt cleanup of the chronic Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) pollution from the abandoned Tulsequah Chief mine. 

“For more than 50 years the BC provincial and Canadian federal governments have allowed the Tulsequah Chief mine to pollute the Taku Watershed, Southeast Alaska’s most productive salmon fishery, with acid mine drainage that their own inspectors have found to be “acutely lethal” to aquatic organisms,”  said Chris Zimmer, Alaska Campaign Director for Rivers Without Borders.  “Governor Palin has indicated her willingness to cooperate in solving this problem in Alaska’s backyard and we hope the Canadians take her up on the offer.”

On July 1 Palin wrote to Premier Campbell that “In order to protect water quality and assure the continued health of the valuable Taku River fisheries, the state of Alaska feels other means [than re-opening the mine] must be promptly implemented for remediating the Tulsequah Chief AMD drainage.”  Palin also included a July 1 letter Irwin sent to the receiver appointed by the Canadian bankruptcy court to deal with Redfern’s debts.  Irwin specifically requested Redfern not sell or remove any equipment currently on site and needed for cleanup, including heavy earthmoving equipment and an interim water treatment plant Redfern had previously barged to the site but not installed.  Irwin also noted that “The discharge has been the subject of clean-up orders by Canadian agencies, most recently an Inspector’s Direction on May 22, 2009 from Environment Canada under the Fisheries Act but has continued largely, if not wholly, unabated.” 

“BC has done nothing to halt this toxic pollution, while Canadian federal agencies continue to issue cleanup orders and do absolutely nothing to enforce them,” said Zimmer.  “Now it looks like Redfern has removed heavy equipment and a water treatment plant from the site, in direct contradiction to the request from Commissioner Irwin.  So, with the mining company bankrupt and abandoning the site and no action from BC or Canada, is toxic mine pollution going to spew into the Taku watershed for another 50 years?  We urge incoming Governor Parnell to keep the pressure on the Canadians.”

Environment Canada issued the most recent cleanup order on May 22, with a deadline of July 15 (see Chronology below).  As of today nothing has been done to comply with that order.  The Tulsequah Chief AMD discharge has been occurring unabated since Cominco closed the mine in the late 1950’s.  The new owner, Redfern, proposed to clean up the AMD once the mine was re-opened but had no plan for cleanup if the mine was not re-developed. 

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