Rat Lake levels high
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Jan 19/01) - Though it is literally in some peoples backyards, Rat Lake will not be cleaned up any time soon.
Adjacent to houses and apartments, the small lake is part of one of five leases Con mine holds with the territorial government.
At a public meeting attended by 50 people who live near the lake, Miramar manager of environmental affairs Hugh Wilson said the company plans to exercise an option to extend the lease for five years when it comes due in July.
Wilson said the decision to extend was based on the company's plan for the mine. Asked to elaborate, he would say only, "It's something we're going to do."
Arsenic and calcine sludges on another parts of its property are a higher restoration priority for the company, he told the gathering of 50 residents. Held at the Great Hall of the legislative assembly, the meeting was organized by Great Slave MLA Bill Braden, with help from Frame Lake MLA Charles Dent.
Braden said the information session was organized in response to questions he faced while going door-to-door during the last election campaign.
Findings of a Royal Military College study on arsenic in Yellowknife leave little doubt that Rat Lake will need to be cleaned up.
Miramar is obliged to begin cleaning up any leased lands within two years of the expiry of the lease. The 1999 study revealed arsenic concentrations in the soil, water and sediment of Rat Lake were well above estimated background levels in the city and many times higher than Canadian guidelines. The study backs up the belief that tailings from Con Mine were once deposited in the lake.
During Tuesday's meeting, Stanton Regional Health Board senior environmental health officer Brad Colpitts resisted requests from residents for arsenic concentration statistics, saying "at this point I don't think they're terribly helpful or relevant."
Colpitts is a member of Yellowknife Arsenic Soils Remediation Committee, an organization trying to develop arsenic standards for Yellowknife.
Two years ago the committee erected signs advising people not to drink or swim in Rat Lake and other city lakes.
In 1998 the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment recommended a limit of 12 ppm as a guideline for remediation of arsenic contaminated soils.
As the RMC report notes, that level is not achievable in Yellowknife because arsenic occurs naturally in the environment here in higher concentrations.
The job of arsenic soils remediation committee is to develop a local standard for reclamation of mining properties here. The first task, said Colpitts, will be to identify background levels.
