Dear Editor:

I’ve just finished reading the article in the most recent issue of the Osoyoos Times regarding the tailings pond spill into Wolfe Creek, a tributary directly linked to the Lower Similkameen Indian Band (LSIB).

There are two notable points that I wanted to address. Firstly, the article quotes the B.C. Ministry of Environment as stating that the contamination resulting from the spill only affected the  “top few centimetres of snow” and that the “spill was not very severe.”

Historically, when tailings spills occur, (see: Mount Polley, B.C.; Dan River Steam Station, Eden, North Carolina; Kajaran, Syunik province, Armenia; Gullbridge Mine Site, Newfoundland, Canada for just a few examples) there are always long lasting effects, regardless of the amount that has been spilled.

The whole point of keeping a tailings pond is to ensure that the mineral and heavy metal byproducts of mining do not undergo oxidization and, thusly, acid production which is harmful to the surrounding environment.

Furthermore, there are numerous toxic chemicals, which are also mining byproducts found in tailing ponds.

When leaks occur, oxidization of these heavy metals occur and this, coupled with the introduction of the toxic waste, contaminates the surrounding areas, rivers, and water table.

Heavy metals do not simply sit on the surface of a few centimetres of snow and evaporate when the snow melts.

It’s time for the Ministry of Environment to stop pulling the wool over our eyes

When a copper mine tailings pond spill occurred in Shaanxi Province, China in 2006, the residents nearby were treated to a five-kilometre river being contaminated with toxic potassium cyanide, and 130 residents in the area were forced to evacuate.

True, this spill wasn’t as severe as the one in China, but what’s to stop something like this from occurring in this area?

While I am a First Nations woman I am not of the LSIB, but I am positive that they have strong, deep-rooted, cultural ties to their land and rivers spanning for thousands of years, as do my people. When ties like these are broken by man-made environmental disasters the effects on the local band’s health and well-being is tremendous, not to mention the monetary implications this can have on a people who source their food from these very rivers and lands that are being poisoned.

I wholeheartedly agree with Chief Keith Crow, when he states, “Government and companies can’t just keep silent when they are allowing our lands and waters to be damaged and our people’s health to suffer.”

Enough is enough.

A subsidiary point that caught my attention was the monetary recompense that the LSIB is receiving – $200,000 a year?

Is that a joke?

I reviewed the 2013 financial reports of the Copper Mountain Mining Corporation to find that they had generated over $31 million in profit last year.

Given all of the aforementioned risks of mining projects, $200,000 is a laughably small amount.

But I guess how do you really put a price on thousands of years of culture and heritage? Either way, it’s time that the government, and the corporations that it allows to run rampant, be held accountable.

How long does this have to go on for?

Audrey Medwayosh

Anishinaabe

British Columbia