CONSEJO INTERNACIONAL DE TRATADOS INDIOS

Press Release                         For Immediate Release

March 21, 2006

New Threats to Clean Water from Mining Industry on the 14th Anniversary of
World Water Day

As the 14th anniversary of World Water Day dawns, new threats to clean water are emerging from the North American mining industry. The international observance of World Water Day—begun in 1993—is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. On Wednesday, 22 March 2006, communities around the world will again celebrate World Water Day.

Despite this, the mining industry has been pushing to relax laws that protect water, fish, and wildlife in both the US and Canada. Several mining companies are proposing to undermine existing laws to allow the dumping of mine wastes and waste rock into fresh water bodies—including those that are important habitat for fish, migratory waterfowl, and other species, some endangered. This is a “cheap and easy” means of disposing of mine wastes.

Among the numerous Canadian mine proposals planning to dump waste into fish-bearing waters are the Kemess North, Huckleberry, and Red Chris mines in northern British Columbia, and Aur Resources’ “Duck Pond” mine in central Newfoundland. US mines slated for freshwater disposal of mine wastes include the Kensington mine in Alaska, currently under judicial review, and the Pebble mine proposed for the near future in the Bristol Bay region, also in Alaska. Several of these proposed mines will affect waterbodies in the traditional territories of aboriginal communities—many already negatively affected by “historic” mines and their wastes.

Before clean water regulations began taking effect in the 1970s and ’80s, underwater disposal of mine wastes was common all across North America, where lakes were frequently used as unregulated tailings dumps for mines. Mine waste disposal in near-shore marine areas also affects oceans, estuaries, and bays in a number of countries around the world. Wherever it occurs, it is a very controversial practice.

In the US and Canada, mining companies have lobbied strenuously, and are very close to getting government rules changed in both countries that will allow regulators to redefine water bodies as tailings impoundment areas—or to redefine waste as simple fill—so companies can deposit mine wastes with impunity.

At Alaska’s Kensington mine, the Corps of Engineers (COE) has re-classified mine waste from “waste” to “fill” and issued a permit allowing the disposal of waste into a sub-alpine lake. This re-classification allows what was previously prohibited to now occur, not because there has been any reduction in harm to the environment or any increased effectiveness in treating mine wastes, but simply because this waste disposal method is cheaper.

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Press Release: New Threats to Clean Water                                                                       Page 2

“This is clearly a violation of the US Clean Water Act,” said Kat Hall of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council. “If the Kensington mine project is allowed to fill Lower Slate Lake with mine waste, we have opened a floodgate for similar projects throughout the US.”

In Canada, the Metal Mining Effluent Regulation (MMER), a regulation under the federal Fisheries Act, currently prevents the dumping of mine wastes into fish-bearing waterbodies. Before the revised MMER came into effect, there were many examples of freshwater mine tailings disposal in Canada, including lakes in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland/Labrador. The MMER allows only up to 15 mg per liter on average per month of total suspended solids (TSS) discharge of mine waste into fish-bearing waters. When the MMER was revised in 2002, the government added the controversial Schedule 2. At the time, Environment Canada said Schedule 2 would only be used to “legalize historic mines.” If approved by Cabinet, however, it will allow any fish-bearing water body in the country to be redefined as a tailings impoundment area. Schedule 2 was slipped in at the end of a very exhaustive ten-year review process. There are now about half a dozen mine projects awaiting approval under Schedule 2 of the Canadian MMER.

JP LaPlante, mining coordinator for the Takla Lake First Nation stated, “Title and rights decisions for First Nations must be made before the decision to fill Amazay (Duncan) Lake with mine waste. The British Columbia government has manipulated the environmental assessment and mine approval processes to keep First Nations out of front-line decision-making on the fate of this important cultural and subsistence resource for our band members.”

“Tribes and First Nations in the US and Canada stand to lose more of an already impaired cultural and subsistence resource base,” stated Robert Shimek, Mining Projects Coordinator for the Bemidji MN-based Indigenous Environmental Network.. “As we celebrate World Water Day, I ask all citizens in both countries to protest the efforts by mining companies, as well as some government regulators, to undermine the intent of clean water laws across North America. In the American West, mining companies have already contaminated about 40% of the watersheds. Clean water is a human right. Clean water sustains the web of life we all rely on. We all have to step up to meet these new threats to clean water from the mining industry.”

An international coalition of concerned citizens is working to raise the profile of this destructive practice and challenge the mining industry and government efforts to weaken laws that protect our water, and our fish and wildlife resources.

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For more information please contact:

Kat Hall, Southeast Alaska Conservation Council (907) 586-6942

JP LaPlante, Takla Lake First Nation, 250-564-9321, ext 6

Robert Shimek, Indigenous Environmental Network, (218) 751-4967

Amy Crook, Center for Science in Public Participation, 250-721-3627

Maggie Paquet, CEN Mining Caucus, member MMER-MAG group, 250-723-8802