Mount Polley Disaster, ctd...Whose Credibility Is It Anyway?

OfSpokesthingiesAnd
CEO'sVille


As we noted the other day, in the wake of a blog post from Damien Gillis, the spill is way bigger than 'initially estimated'.

And now, thanks to the VSun's Gordon Hoekstra, in the eyes of some at least (unless, they have closed them tight), the blogger's 'credibility' appears to have been 'established':

Imperial Metals’ estimate of the size of the spill from its Mount Polley mine tailings dam collapse is nearly 70 per cent greater than the initial estimate.

The B.C. government has estimated that 10 million cubic metres of water and 4.5 million cubic meters of finely ground rock containing potentially-toxic metals was released by the collapse of the dam on Aug. 4.

But Imperial Metals has estimated the size of the spill at 10.6 million cubic metres of water, 7.3 million cubic metres of tailings and 6.5 million cubic metres of “interstitial” water...

So.

How did the fine folks over at the good Mr. Bennett's mining ministry get it so wrong the first time around?

Well, let's get a quote from their (not) engineer, shall we:

...The early numbers were best estimates, later refined by Imperial Metals, said B.C. Mines Ministry spokesman Ryan Shotton in a written statement...

Can someone tell me why we allow spokesthingies to speak about things they had no actual hand in?

Meanwhile, as for the company and it's sediment settlement lovin' president?

Well, they have nothing to say, not even to tell us that all that interstitial water is safe to drink.

...Imperial Metals did not respond to a request Wednesday for comment...


Sheesh.


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And all this fuss over the 'credibility', established or otherwise, of lowly bloggers has nothing whatsoever to do with the fine reporting of Mr. Hoekstra...Instead we're talking about, well....You know.

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