British Columbia’s Mount Polley disaster on August 4, 2014 sent 4.5 million cubic meters of toxic slurry into Quesnel Lake—Canada’s deepest fjord lake, home to about a quarter of B.C.’s annual sockeye salmon returns.

Following the $65 million clean-up effort and a 16-month investigation of the dam breach, the province’s chief mine inspector found the mine operator, Imperial Metals, not liable for the disaster. The inspector did find that excessive water in the tailings pond contributed to the dam failure, saying Imperial, “…failed to effectively manage water at the mine site and in the tailings site facility…”

Still, not their fault right? The copper and gold mine reopened last summer and is expected to be back at full strength this winter. Though scientists found increased levels of toxic selenium and arsenic in the lake, impacts to fish are not yet known. The BC Conservation Officer Service is still investigating the incident and Imperial could still face noncompliance prosecution.

The underlying cause cited in a report issued last year, was a design flaw by engineers from Knight Piesold Consulting. According to the inspector, engineers failed to notice a weak, glaciated, clay layer under the dam site and when that layer slid the dam above failed. Knight Piesold is the same firm contracted to engineer the massive tailings dams for Alaska’s Pebble Mine.

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Tom Bie
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Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

Category: Daily Drake
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Author: Tom Bie

Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

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