Shareholders are like mushrooms....kept in the darkYou would think this would have been a NR?
The results of the groundwater tracer dye study Constantine Metal Resources began conducting last month are expected to be released at the end of February, spokesperson Liz Cornejo said last week.
Those results track groundwater movement downhill from the discharge area and will inform Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s decision on Constantine’s waste management permit.
In September, DEC remanded Constantine’s waste management permit back to Division of Water staff after five environmental groups and individuals pushed back against the permit’s approval. As part of its review, DEC has asked Constantine to conduct a groundwater transport dye study.
Constantine proposes blasting a one-mile tunnel under a glacier 35 miles north of Haines for year-round drilling and exploration. Its plan includes a system of settling ponds, where wastewater from inside the tunnel will be treated before being pumped back underground.
Primarily, dissenters argued that Constantine should have proved that the water from its discharge system would not flow into navigable waters, such as the Klehini and Chilkat Rivers. If a discharge of pollutants were to enter U.S. waters, Constantine would need to apply for a different state permit that allows for discharging wastewater directly to surface water and satisfies federal regulations in the Clean Water Act.
The tracer dye test will inform DEC’s decision on which permit is necessary.
The company contracted with Missouri Ozark Underground Lab, a consulting firm specializing in groundwater tracing, to design the testing site, collection times and types of dye to use, Cornejo said.
“We are essentially introducing a dye into certain areas with water, and in theory it seeps into the ground,” Cornejo said. “Then… there’s a medium, this charcoal, that’s absorbing anything that’s coming through in the water and will pick up the dye if it is in the water. Not visually, but chemically.”
The laboratory-grade charcoal that’s designed with a large surface area capable of absorbing low concentrations of dye was placed in late October, said Missouri Ozark Underground Lab consultant, senior hydro-geologist Tom Aley. “The study is in progress now,” he said.
To simulate a test pit, Aley dug a hole and mixed in water from a nearby stream with dye. He said that he will recommend Constantine continue sampling until the dye is detected.
Constantine has employed three field staff members to replace the charcoal packets at scheduled intervals, and also collect water samples and test the hydrology, Cornejo said. The old packets are then sent to the lab in Missouri, where they are analyzed.
“When you have a geologic setting where a lot of water goes into the ground, it comes out somewhere,” Aley said. “Dye tracing is one way of detecting where it would come out and what the travel time is like. We don’t know at this time if it would take a day or a month or two months.”
Takshanuk Watershed Council director Derek Poinsette wrote to DEC last week requesting to collaborate as a “third party observer” in the testing. “Given the potential gravity of the results of this tracer dye study, no matter what those results may be, and Constantine’s obvious financial interest in seeing the results go a certain direction, wouldn’t a third-party observer of some kind lend a measure of additional credibility to the process?” Poinsette said.
Cornejo said, while Constantine is open to different partnerships (and provided Takshanuk access to conduct baseline water quality and aquatic species sampling at Glacier Creek last month), it wouldn’t allow Takshanuk to patner on this study.
Klukwan tribal president Kimberley Strong, who requested a tracer dye study in her appeal in August, said it’s good Constantine is conducting the study, but it needs to be an stringent and transparent study.
The report will be released to the public in late February, Cornejo said. In the meantime, Constantine’s remanded permit remains in effect, though Cornejo said the company doesn’t have construction plans until it hears from DEC.
“During the review there might be a material change to the permit,” Cornejo said. “We may or may not make the decision to just go ahead anyway or not, depending on the decision. As of right now, it’s not holding us up. We’ll see what happens in the spring, if it’s still unclear.”
Current law, set last March by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled that Maui County was violating the Clean Water Act when it injected treated sewage water underground that seeped into the Pacific Ocean. The county brought the decision to the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments earlier this month.
Alaska has joined the ranks of 19 other states to write to the Supreme Court a request that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reverse its decision, stating that groundwater is already regulated by the state. “These increased burdens threaten to divert scarce resources away from state-specific programs that already protect the nation’s waters—making it likely that, rather than increase the degree of environmental protection state agencies provide, applying the ‘fairly traceable’ standard nationwide will weaken those agencies’ important efforts,” the court document said.