The larger of the two fines was C$168,750, encompassing 27 separate instances of waste discharge that were made without the province’s authorization. In total, more than 109,000 litres of waste were released into the environment.
However, the Ministry found these wastes had little to no actual impact to the environment because they were “limited to the heavily disturbed area in and around the [Elkview operations] pit and coal processing plant.”
While the second penalty of C$52,000 is smaller, it only covered two incidents, and so the fine was larger per incident as the mining waste did get to nearby creeks that support animal life, the Ministry’s report added.
In one of the incidences, the contamination exceeded the province’s guidelines for sulphide and selenium, which can cause deformities in fish and health issues for humans, the Ministry said.
In a statement to CBC News Monday, Teck Coal said that the…
