In September, Peace River Coal was issued $809,700 in Administrative Monetary Penalties (AMPs) for environmental and procedural violations. AMPs are discretionary financial penalties issued by the Ministry of the Environment.
According to the Ministry, they are not taking proper care to treat effluent. The mine has a permit that authorized “the discharge of treated effluent to Babcock Creek, Gordon Creek and the Murray River.” However, according to the Ministry, PRC failed to meet the permit conditions, which still hold during a period of care and maintenance.
According to an Environmental Compliance Report issued last month, in 2019, PRC failed to comply with this permit, with selenium levels in the water being discharged into Babcock and Gordon Creek being over permitted levels on at least 40 occasions.
Selenium limits are in place, says the ministry, “because high levels in surface water, groundwater, soils and vegetation can bio-accumulate and potentially become toxic to aquatic life, birds and mammals including humans.”
Effluent at the mine site is directed into sedimentation ponds. One of the sedimentation ponds includes a water treatment facility that treats the effluent to reduce the selenium before discharging, but the system is not designed to treat the current amount of effluent, says the ministry.
They also failed to provide six quarterly reports and one annual report.
This resulted in three administrative penalties totaling $809,700.
According to the report, the ministry expects the non-compliance to continue until treatment capacity increases.
Peace River Coal began operations in 2008, and was purchased by Anglo American in 2011. In December of 2014, the mine was placed into care and maintenance after coal prices declined.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
