Alberta coal mine moves ahead without permits federal officials say are needed

Environmental teams are asking Ottawa to implement its guidelines on an Alberta coal website that has began constructing an underground check mine with out fisheries permits that officers have mentioned are required.

“They can’t just sit back and wait for habitat destruction to occur,” mentioned Ecojustice lawyer Dan Cheater. “We’d like to see them take action.”

Coalspur Mines is planning a big enlargement of its Vista thermal coal mine close to Hinton, Alta., which might make it the most important thermal coal mine in North America. The firm can be planning an underground check mine on the location to find out the feasibility of subsurface mining.

In 2020, then-federal Environment minister Jonathan Wilkinson ordered a joint federal-provincial evaluation of each the enlargement and the check mine. That evaluation collapsed final fall when the Supreme Court of Canada dominated Ottawa’s Impact Assessment Act was unconstitutional.

But by then the Department of Fisheries and Oceans had reviewed plans for each initiatives and determined it required permits below two totally different items of laws.

“DFO indicated that the physical activities would require a Fisheries Act authorization,” says the 2021 evaluation report from the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada.

“The physical activities may also potentially require the exercise of powers … such as a Species at Risk Act permit for impacts to Athabasca rainbow trout or other species at risk.”

The division has been involved with Coalspur however has not begun an investigation, mentioned Fisheries spokesman Robert Rombouts.

“The company is obliged to comply with the acts and failure to comply may lead to enforcement action,” he mentioned in an electronic mail.

Meanwhile, work on the underground mine has begun.

“The company started construction work, but it’s limited to the underground portion of the mine,” mentioned an electronic mail from Renato Gandia, spokesman for the Alberta Energy Regulator.

“Coalspur has not commenced mining activities at Vista Test Underground Mine. As of Dec. 31, 2023, no coal has been mined at the underground mine and the portal has not been constructed.”

The firm has acquired all essential provincial permits for the check mine. Coalspur has argued that as a result of the check mine doesn’t broaden the mine’s total footprint, no further permits are required.

“The (test mine) simply represents an alternative mining method within the existing and approved permit boundary,” says its mission description. “The (test mine) does not represent additional disturbance beyond the boundaries of the existing Phase I permit area.”

Officials from Coalspur didn’t reply to an interview request.

Federal officers discovered a number of causes for concern, together with doable modifications to close by streams from dewatering of the underground mine and impacts of underground mining on groundwater.

“The (test mine) includes mining underneath tributaries of McPherson Creek,” says the evaluation company’s evaluation. “The processing and waste management associated with the physical activity also have the potential to adversely affect critical habitat, due to the location of tributaries within and surrounding the … lease area within which the (test mine) is located.”

Area waterways are habitat for the endangered Athabasca rainbow trout and the bull trout, Alberta’s provincial fish.

Ecojustice, performing for 2 native environmental teams, has written two letters to the federal Fisheries division asking for it to implement the principles earlier than harm is finished.

“We know what will happen once work has started on both the underground mine and this future expansion,” Cheater mentioned. “Department of Fisheries and Oceans has confirmed what the anticipated impacts are.

“Regardless, Coalspur is forging ahead.”

A revamped environmental evaluation act is predicted this spring, with draft laws on coal mine effluent within the fall, Environment Canada spokeswoman Kaitlin Power mentioned in an electronic mail.

“It is expected that Vista coal mine, if it moves forward, would be subject to these regulations,” she wrote.

“Regardless of whether the Vista Coal Underground Mine Project and Vista Mine Phase II Expansion Project in Alberta undergo a federal impact assessment, they must comply with all relevant federal statutes. As such, they may require federal permits or authorizations.”

Cheater mentioned corporations shouldn’t be capable to make the most of a man-made hole in environmental laws whereas Ottawa rejigs it.

“We’re in an interim period where projects like this and potentially others are not going to be subject to an environmental assessment. But that doesn’t mean the federal government can sidestep its obligations to protect the environment.”