Vancouver -- Mining companies are asking Environment Canada to let them dump mining waste in lakes across the country.
Although companies say turning lakes into tailings ponds is often the best way to deal with the toxic effluent the mines create, a spokesman for the David Suzuki Foundation says the ecological effects on Canada's bodies of water could be devastating.
Sixteen mining companies have applied to be allowed to use lakes from B.C. to Nunavut to Newfoundland as tailings ponds under Schedule 2 of national Metal Mining Effluent Regulations, which would otherwise prohibit them from dumping "deleterious substances" in bodies of water.
When environmental legislation was changed to prohibit mining companies from using lakes as tailings ponds an exception was created for companies already doing so, said John Werring, a salmon conservation biologist with the David Suzuki Foundation's Marine and Fresh Water Conservation Program. Now new mining initiatives are trying to do the same thing, he said.
"It's absolutely outrageous that the government is even considering turning pristine lakes into tailings ponds, especially when everyone's being told you have an onset of global warming and the need to conserve water," he said.
Byng Giraud, vice-president of policy and communications for the B.C. Mining Association, six of whose members are among the companies applying for permits, said putting tailings in bodies of water is often the best option available.
"We have some of the best environmental scientists in the world on this and certainly we work closely with [the Department of Fisheries and Oceans] and environmental assessment to determine what uses are the best," he said.