NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Last month's wastewater leak from a coal mine in Alberta into the Athabasca River is a 670 million litre wake up call, says one of Canada's top water scientists.

Nearly 700 million litres of wastewater leaked from a containment pond at the Obed Mountain coal mine near Hinton, Alta. on Oct. 31. Plante Creek, pictured here, is one of the creeks that carried the wastewater into the Athabasca River. - photo courtesy of Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development

Dr. David Schindler is an internationally recognized scientist and the Killam Memorial Professor of Ecology emeritus at the University of Alberta. He founded Canada's experimental lakes project and has studied the effects of Alberta's oil sands on the Athabasca River.

Schindler said the spill of nearly 700 million litres of wastewater from a containment pond at the Obed Mountain Mine should be considered a warning. The water contained clay and dirt with high concentrations of heavy metals - including manganese and mercury - according to test results released by Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development last week.

"I don't think there is a threat from this, but in contrast, I think this is a warning. This indicates that a lot worse things could happen," Schindler said.

"For example, if one of the dikes holding back those big tailings ponds in the oil sands breached, there certainly is the potential, because of their enormous size, of that material being swept well downstream to where they would contaminate the waters of the Northwest Territories."

The Obed Mountain mine is about 30 kilometres east of Hinton, Alta. The mine, which is owned by Sherritt International Corporation, has not been operational since 2012.

According to information from Sherritt, the leak was the result of a broken wall on one of the containment ponds at the site. The Town of Athabasca website published information stating the leaking wastewater from the broken pond was guided to the site's main containment pond, which overflowed. The water then leaked into two nearby creeks - the Apetowun and the Plante. These two creeks empty into the Athabasca River.

The containment pond had been in use since the 1990s, said Sean McCaughan, Sherritt's senior vice president of coal.

Schindler said the incident demonstrates the damage a failed containment pond can have on the environment.

"What I would encourage people to do is put pressure on governments to do something about tailings ponds in general," he said. "If this one can be breached, so can those bigger ones."

The contaminants in the wastewater are attached to sediment, which is being deposited along the Athabasca River bed as the wastewater plume makes its way downstream, according to the testing report released by Alberta Environment.

This means water testing results are now showing lower concentrations of contaminants.

But Dr. Kevin Timoney, a biologist and researcher with Treeline Ecological Research, said no one should expect the contaminated sediment to stay put. He said currents in rivers naturally pick up sediment and redistribute it, such as during spring runoff when flows are higher. The contaminated sediment will be moved further downstream over time, Timoney said.

"I think it would be prudent for them to think that a proportion of the sediment will reach the Northwest Territories," he said.

Timoney has authored studies on the environmental impacts of Alberta's tar sands, as well as reports on Alberta's record of environmental regulations enforcement.

He said right now, it's impossible to tell exactly what the levels of contamination are in the sediment, adding that while Alberta has released testing results for the water in the Athabasca River, results of any sediment testing has not been made public.

"The majority of the contaminants will be contained in the suspended solids," Timoney said. "We have absolutely no information on them."

Schindler said deposited sediment creates shallow areas in the river, which are used as nurseries and spawning areas for fish. If enough contaminated soil is deposited in one of these areas, it creates a "hot spot" where contaminant levels are high.

"There is a tendency for fish at those spots to have much higher concentrations of contaminants than at other places on the river," Schindler said.

Schindler said at this point, it's too early to tell what impact the Obed Mountain leak will have on fish.

"I think in most cases though, it's repetitive spills like this that wipe out rivers, and that's what we should be focusing on - prevention," he said. "We are fortunate that this first one of the inevitable failures of these dikes is one that is not huge, and probably will not have a huge affect on fish throughout the system."

Timoney said bioaccumulation is another concern about contaminated sediment deposits.

Bioaccumulation occurs when an organism ingests a toxin, which is further transferred up the food chain.

"The organisms that live in the mud at the bottom of the river form the basis of the food chain in the Athabasca River. The contaminants are settling, concentrating at the base of the food chain," he said.

"We anticipate there will be major impacts as a result of this spill that will continue for years."

Sam Gargan, co-chair of the Keepers of the Athabasca - made up of First Nations, Inuit, Metis, and environmental groups - said the group is also worried about long-term impacts on the river.

"I have real issues with regard to bioaccumulation. It's not only the water - it's going to be the fish, it's going to be the wildlife, it's going to be the plants and so on," he said. "It's not going to be a short timeframe."

Gargan was one of about 150 people who attended a meeting last week in Yellowknife about the Obed Mine leak. Gargan told the crowd the mine is just one of the industries contributing to pollution in the Athabasca River.

"This is not just an isolated incident," he said.

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam told representatives from Sherritt that the ACFN is considering legal action against the company.

"This is not over, by far. There will be possible legal action coming down your way in regards to what has happened here," he said.

He also called the incident a "wake up call."

"It's too bad that it happened on (Sherritt's) site, but nonetheless it was a wake-up call and that wake up call, calls for Canada and every province across the country, the territories as well, together with the First Nations people, to come up with a national energy strategy plan because we do not have one here in Canada," he said.

At the meeting, Fort Providence Chief Joachim Bonnetrouge said he agreed.

"I can really feel what the chief from Athabasca is feeling, and I would like to say, for the record, that myself as a leader, I'll be there for him and his community," he said. "My feeling is that this is very unfortunate, but somebody has to pay. Somebody has to pay."

Bonnetrouge said he believes that sometimes, the legal system is the only way to make sure aboriginal rights are being upheld.

"We may have no choice. We hope we don't have to go that far, but that always has to be an option. I just wanted to say that for the record," he told the crowd.

The territory is still working on a bilateral agreement with Alberta as part of the Mackenzie River Basin Transboundary Waters Master Agreement, which was finalized in 1997.

As of press time, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources had not responded to requests about when the bilateral agreement was scheduled to be finalized.

Gargan said he and other Keepers of the Athabasca members hope the agreement includes preparedness plans and enforcement protocol to protect the NWT.

"Our issue with regard to that is if there are no contingency plans, accountability, transparency and so on, then the transboundary agreement is not worth the paper it's written on," he said.

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