Save Fish Lake (again!)
On Monday, the federal government announced that they were accepting public comments for an Environmental Assessment for Taseko Mines Ltd's New Prosperity Gold-Copper Mine project.
If that sounds familiar to you it is because just over a year ago Taseko's first Prosperity Mine proposal was turned down by the same government process.
Taseko’s original proposal was to drain Fish Lake and the lake basin would be used to store waste rock and overburden produced by mining operations. During the first assessment, the company was told they needed to find an alternative to this, because it would destroy Fish Lake. Taseko’s engineers offered Little Fish Lake as part of an alternate site. However, eventually the toxins from the Little Fish Lake site could make their way downstream to Fish Lake. In fact, the review panel concluded that this “would result in greater long-term environmental risk.”
Despite this history, the new mine plan that Taseko is seeking approval for proposes to use the Little Fish Lake basin and surrounding area to build a larger lake for the tailings storage facility.
If you are confused as to why the company would return with a proposal that has already been deemed a worse alternative than the first by Taseko, Environment Canada, and the Environmental Assessment Panel, you are not alone. In fact the whole idea of turning a lake, especially a lake called Fish Lake, in to a dump site for toxic tailings probably seems like a crazy idea.
It’s not just that this proposal has already been rejected once; or that there is a risk it could threaten tens of thousands of fish and lead to pollution of the headwaters of a river network that supports the world’s largest run of wild salmon; or that the locally blue-listed population of grizzly bears would be threatened by this project; or even that the Tsilhqot'in Nation, the area's First Nations people, are strongly opposed to the project. The craziest thing about this project is that – if people like you and I don't take this opportunity to speak up – there is a good chance that this mine will get built.
Together, we can save Fish Lake. Again.
Joe Foy | National Campaign Director
Wilderness Committee
