Mount Polley Disaster...Why Won't Imperial Fight Gravity?

Pumps'NStuffCost
RealDoughVille


The fine folks from the provincial government and Imperial Metals agree that they can't even begin to start cleaning up the toxic mess in Hazeltine creek until they decrease the level of Polley Lake by gradually draining their effluent water downhill into Quesnel Lake.

And that's a big problem because things are going very, very slowly.

Gordon Hoekstra in the VSun explains:

...The length of time it will take to lower the lake’s water level has raised concern because it will delay the cleanup of the potentially toxic material dumped into Hazeltine Creek and Quesnel Lake.

Both the company and the province have said the lake must be lowered before any work can be done in Hazeltine Creek or at its widened delta at Quesnel Lake. There is a risk that rains could send another rush of water down the scoured creek bed to the lake, a safety concern to anyone working below, the province and company have said.

“At the rate we are going, we won’t get any work done on Hazeltine Creek this year, and that’s unacceptable,” Likely resident Richard Holmes said. He said the company should be making a bigger effort to pump water into empty pits at the mine site.

“The efforts are just not good enough,” said Holmes, a consultant biologist who does work for the Soda Creek Indian Band...


But here's the thing.

There is a way that Imperial might be able to speed up the process.

Specifically, they could get to it and start pumping their effluent water back UPHILL into their own massive mine pits.

But they won't, as Mr. Hoekstra also explains in his VSun piece:

...In community meetings, Imperial Metals has said it is not practical to pump water up hill to the empty pits. Company officials were not available for an interview Thursday...


Interesting that, eh?

Which leaves one wondering if a hardcore pumping effort, which could help prevent further devastation before the autumn rains and the coho come, is 'not practical' because it would cost real money.

And, perhaps even more interestingly, it turns out that at least some of the smart boys on Bay Street are betting that such spending of 'real money' on the clean-up won't happen.

The following is a report from a report by Peter Kennedy in a very fine publication called 'Stockhouse News':

Investors in Imperial Metals Corp. (TSX: T.III, Stock Forum) will be keeping a close eye on Canadian oil patch billionaire Murray Edwards, as the beleaguered company moves to clean up a high profile tailings spill in British Columbia and keep a second B.C. mine on the development track...

{snip}

...There has been speculation that the clean-up costs at Mount Polley – where millions of cubic metres of waste water and silt spilled into nearby river systems on August 4, 2012 – could be as high as $200 million.

But Edwards’ commitment to the company is an indication of his belief that the clean-up costs will be a small fraction of that amount, a financial analyst said...


Surprised?


_________
And where are provincial ministers responsible, Mr. 'Avalanches Are Tailings Spills Too' and Ms. 'Don't Eat The Fish Livers', on the actual clean-up plan (or total lack thereof)?...


.