Lawsuit Exposes Canada's Toxic Tailings Secret
Groups say feds flouting law, hiding mining pollution from public
TORONTO, November 7 – Litigation was launched today against Canada’s Minister of Environment to
ensure that the hundreds of millions of kilograms of toxic mining waste being kept
secret from the Canadian public are reported.
Ecojustice filed the lawsuit, an Application for Judicial Review, in Federal Court today
on behalf of MiningWatch Canada and Great Lakes United. It alleges that the Minister
broke the law when he directed mining companies to ignore their legal responsibility
to report millions of kilograms of pollution from their operations under the National
Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI).
“The law is clear: Mining companies in Canada are legally required to report the
amount of chemicals they are releasing into the environment,” said Justin Duncan,
Staff Lawyer with Ecojustice. “Instead, at the direction of the Minister of
Environment, these companies continue to flout the law by not reporting massive
amounts of toxic tailings they dump into our environment each year.”
In stark contrast, the U.S. government has required mining companies to report the
amounts of pollutants generated by their operations under the U.S. Toxics Release
Inventory (TRI) since 1998. Despite the fact that the US mining industry composes only
72 of the 23,566 total TRI-reporting industrial facilities, in 2005 the mines released
more than 530 million kilograms of pollutants – accounting for 27% of all pollutants
reported across the U.S. Mine tailings and waste rock – the data being withheld from
the Canadian public – accounted for more than 97% of the total pollutants reported by
the mining industry.
“Given the enormous amounts of carcinogens and heavy metals like lead and mercury
in U.S. mine tailings, it is absurd that Canadian mines are being let off the hook,” said
Joan Kuyek from MiningWatch Canada. “From Smithers to Voisey’s Bay, Canadians
have a right to know what - and how much - pollution the mining industry is releasing
into our air, water, and soil.”
The 80 metal mining facilities that reported to the NPRI in 2006 were from:
Ontario(33), Quebec(19), BC(9), Manitoba(6), Saskatchewan(6), Newfoundland(3), New
Brunswick(2), Nunavut(2).
“Two weeks ago the Minister of the Environment stood on the shore of Lake Superior
with the Prime Minster as they announced the creation of the world’s largest
freshwater marine park,” said John Jackson of Great Lakes United. “At the same time
he protects the mining industry by hiding the toxic pollution that could spoil this
ecosystem for generations.”
For further information please contact:
John Jackson, Great Lakes United, (519) 744-7503
Joan Kuyek, National Coordinator, MiningWatch Canada (613) 569-3439
Justin Duncan, Staff Lawyer, Ecojustice (416) 368-7533 ext.22
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