GREY:CPYCF - Post by User
Comment by
mokitaon Mar 28, 2013 4:24pm
80 Views
Post# 21182799
US exposes collusion between Teck and BC Governmen
US exposes collusion between Teck and BC Governmen Evidence of Teck coal mine poisoning of Elk River since 2008 exposes a coverup of astounding proportions on the part of the industry and government agencies involved. For the thousands opposed to Raven, this poisoning calls for rejecting any claim BC's environmental review process is rigorous or CEO Tapic's claim that Raven will protect the environment. Thousands of pages of studies and industry prediction models that are designed to settle fears of risk become, therefore, meaningless and the claimed science underlying these studies, bogus. 2Guys, the BC Government has yet to increase Teck's security bond to an amount that would remediate the extensive pollution of Elk Ridver basin, which could very well be in the billions. Only as a result of current US lawsuits and threats of lawsuits, Teck has earmarked $500 MILLION to a mitigation program but the government haS instruct Teck to mitigate current pollution. Rather in keeping with the Liberal government resolve to expand coal mining and remove regulations that impact economic feasability, it is poised to approve Teck expansions just as it approved Quinsam coal mine expansions despite evidence of almost a decade of contamining Long Lake and now Quinsam Lake.
Teck is also fighting another US lawsuit for dumping toxins directly into waters that eventually settle in US territorial waters that some believe could cost them billions. It was forced to pay $25 Million for an up front environmental study as a part of this law suit and claims that waters associated with its operation are pure. This is highly unlikely, as heavy metals settle into sediment layers that affect surrounding waters until mitigated. The BC government, however, has not ordered Teck to cleanup pollution of these Canadian waters. The ongoing silence and lack of appropriate fining on the part of the BC government and continued assertions that the environmental review process for Raven is rigorous exposes, in the words of the West Coast Environmental Law Clinic, a "betrayal of public faith" and a timely argument to reject any claim Raven will protect the environment because BC environmental laws are "worldclass." doubling the number of pages in CEC's submission to the EAO would not overturn this conclusion.