Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jun 16/00) - The operative word to describe progress on the clean up of Giant mine is "soon."

Soon results will be in from winter drill sampling of tailings that long ago spilled onto the bottom of Back Bay.

A budget for the fiscal year started April 1 will be finalized by headquarters and regional supervisors soon.

A synopsis of the agreement the federal government struck with Giant purchaser Miramar Mining Inc. will be completed soon.

Soon a public registry DIAND promised a year ago, containing all correspondence, research and other information on the cleanup, will be established.

Until 'soon' arrives, next to no work is being done at the mine.

"No physical work is happening at the moment, pending budget confirmation," said Dave Nutter, head of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs group overseeing the cleanup.

Nutter said if a budget had been approved by now work would have begun on cleaning up areas of the mine contaminated by fuel and oil spills.

If a budget were finalized and the results of the drill testing were in, and those results confirmed that the tailings on the lake bed do not pose a long-term threat to water quality, work would have begun on containing the tailings with an armour of crushed rock and clay.

The research director for the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee, an environmental watchdog group, said the slow progress on Giant does not bode well for the future of the cleanup.

"If they can't find any money this year to do the research, what happens when the actual cleanup comes around?" said Kevin O'Reilly. "I'm not optimistic this cleanup is ever going to happen at this rate."

DIAND regional officials could offer no explanation for the delays or offer any predictions on when the budget might be approved.

O'Reilly said Giant is no exception. Funds for other cleanups and environmental monitoring in the North DIAND is overseeing have also failed to materialize so far.

O'Reilly said he brought up the issue of the cleanup of contaminated Northern sites in general, and Giant in particular, to Environment Minister David Anderson at the recent Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in London, Ont.

"There's basically been no program funding identified for anything in the northern affairs program," said O'Reilly. "They have money for the staff, and I guess they're doing what they can, but there's no money to do any travel, no money to do any additional research, let contracts and so on."

Nutter said the delays are not exacerbating any environmental problems at Giant.

"If the soil's been contaminated for the last 45 years, if we have to wait another couple of months, the reality is it's not really having any impact," Nutter said.

He added, however, that such work has to be done before the mine is abandoned.

The federal government, because it is responsible for regulating mine operations, assumed liability for the cleanup of Giant when former owner Royal Oak went bankrupt. It's assuming of the environmental liability made Giant more saleable by Royal Oak's receiver.