Dane Gibson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Mar 03/99) - Royal Oak managers cannot deny the Colomac Mine they represent is a threat to the environment and is in extremely poor shape.

At Tuesday's NWT Water Board public hearing, held to consider renewal of a Royal Oak Mines water licence, the Colomac Mine was repeatedly described as an environmental crisis -- a fact nobody in the packed room contested.

"I think it's safe to say there's acknowledgement by everybody that we have a crisis on our hands," NWT Water Board chairman Gordon Wray said.

"This mine site has been a litany of disasters, one after another. There can be no trust in a situation like this."

Wray said reports from on-site visits confirmed the site as "the worst case of an abandoned contaminated mine in the North."

Royal Oaks Mines Inc. wrote to the Water Board to request a four year water licence renewal in March, 1998. Its current water licence ran out in January, but was extended to April, 1999.

The most pressing concern is that in two months, the main tailings pond may overflow the dam containing the contaminated water. Tailings water contains cyanide and other harmful elements.

Royal Oak environmental services superintendent, Stephen Schultz, suggested the best solution is to pump tailings water into an open pit.

"Royal Oak proposes to transfer up to 2 million cubic metres of water from the surface of the tailings pond to the main open pit in 1999," Schultz said.

Even though they haven't received authority to start pumping tailings water out, the company has begun constructing a pipeline to do the job. A point Dene Nation national Chief Bill Erasmus challenged them on.

"You've already begun to construct a piping and pumping system, but haven't received authority to begin pumping. Is this common practice?" Erasmus asked.

Environmental services manager Larry Connell admitted it's not common, but time is of the essence.

"It's not normal (to go ahead with construction without authorization) but in this case, we wanted to prevent any environmental damage. At this point, it was crisis management," Connell said.

Erasmus also questioned them on their caribou policies. Herds travel along the tailings ponds so the company suggested they could erect fences and/or cut new routes for the caribou.

Other contamination issues include spilled tailings from a pipeline break, two large diesel spills, and damaged and unsealed drums of waste oil being left about the property.

Ecology North board member Andrew Spaulding wonders who is going to pay the $7.5 million price-tag to clean everything up. The cashless mine only has a security bond for $1.5 million.

Spaulding said the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) will end up picking up the cost.

"DIAND is ultimately responsible for contaminated site cleaning and if they don't have an agreement with the company, then it's up to the taxpayers to pay," Spaulding said.

Wray said the NWT Water Board is now trying to mitigate the short-term crisis and monitor long-term developments.

"All we can do now is gather the pieces together to avert the tailing water from spilling over the dam. In the long-term, we have to restore the mine site into something we can live with," Wray said.

"We have to put a plan in place. Once we get that done, the debate will start as to who will implement it and who will pay for it."

In the Royal Oak submission, the company indicated its wishes to maintain supervised care and maintenance of the Colomac property through 1999 and 2000.

Mining and milling operations at the Colomac Mine, located 220 km north of Yellowknife, were permanently suspended at the end of 1997 in the face of a depleted ore supply and low gold prices.

The Water Board hearings will wrap up Thursday.