Imperial Metals’s Mount Polley mine has been issued a warning for continuing to discharge effluent from its tailing storage facility following the collapse of its tailings dam last month.

The watery discharge was discovered on Sept. 4 during an inspection.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Environment sent an advisory to Mount Polley, owned by Imperial Metals, telling the company to take “prompt action to abate all discharges from the tailings storage facility into the receiving environment.”

While the water is gone from the four-square-kilometre tailings storage facility, the finely ground-up mine rock containing potentially toxic metals also contains water that seeps out.

“We’re encouraged by the progress they’ve made, and of course, in the past five days they’ve managed to stop the discharge. But we are not convinced that what they have in place is going to be sufficient if there is a significant rain event,” said Environment Minister Mary Polak.

Imperial Metals officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Mount Polley’s tailings dam collapsed on Aug. 4, releasing an estimated 24 million cubic metres of tailings containing potentially toxic metals and water into Hazeltine Creek, Polley Lake and Quesnel Lake.

The company has been building a 500- to 600-metre-long berm to stop any further discharge from the tailings facility.

That berm has closed off the collapsed dam section, but there is a concern the berm could leak if there is heavy rain, said Polak.

The government has suggested using sediment traps and diverting flows away from tailings.

The environment ministry said the advisory is the first step of an escalating enforcement response to a violation of the Environmental Management Act.

At a news conference Monday at the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs offices in Vancouver, some area residents complained that not enough action is being taken to stop effluent discharges and that there is no plan to clean up the spilled tailings.

Polak said she understand people’s frustration, but noted a company cleanup plan is being reviewed by government in consultation with First Nations and the Cariboo Regional District.

When the plan is complete, it will be released publicly, said Polak.

She did not have a date on when the plan will be completed.

“Everybody wants answers right away and they want action right away. Unfortunately, we have very many questions still unanswered and they may remain so for some time,” said Polak.

“And cleanup, remediation — we are talking a matter of years, not a matter of months. So, it is extremely important we get this plan right because it’s going to guide the actions of the company and of the ministry over the long term,” she said.

At NewGold’s gold and copper mine near Kamloops on Monday evening, a broken valve between two tailings ponds resulted in a spill of about 16 cubic metres of mine slurry.

Environment Ministry spokesman David Karn said the tailings went into a dry ditch and no waterways were involved.

A company spokeswoman says the crushed rock was completely contained on mine property. There was no danger to people or the environment, and cleanup has begun.

Karn says the spill is minor compared to the breach released at the Mount Polley mine last month.

With files from Canadian Press

ghoekstra@vancouversun.com

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