On August 4, 2014 a breach at the Mount Polley copper-gold mine sent the equivalent of 2,000 Olympic swimming pools of mining waste into a creek, tearing a swath as much as 45 metres wide down the previously metre-wide waterway.
Over 17 million cubic metres of water and eight million cubic metres of tailings effluent — containing toxic copper and gold mining waste — flowed into lakes and streams that served as salmon spawning ground in the province’s Cariboo region.
Environment and Climate Change Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada have jointly investigated possible contraventions of the Federal Fisheries Act, related to the tailings pond breach, the B.C. Conservation Officer Service said in a statement on Tuesday.
“These agencies have been working together as the Mount Polley Integrated Investigation Task Force (MPIITF),” it said. “A Report to Crown Counsel was previously submitted…
