Friday afternoon on a long weekend, do you know where your government is? “Error 404- information or government not found”

Posted on by Laila

We can be seduced…by powerful political groups that promise more wealth and lower taxes. Those with power can use clever, psychological tricks and play upon our weaknesses and brokenness in order to attract us to their way of thinking. We can be manipulated into illusion.”
― Jean Vanier, Finding Peace    

prayer stick 1

 

Yuct Ne Senxiymetkwe Camp delegation planting a prayer stick amidst devastation from  Mount Polley spill, that still shows no plans for remediation of the toxic laden sediment in the impact zone

 

My gosh, it’s the oldest story in the book of politics: Bad news released on Friday afternoon when people are tired of the work week and not paying attention – likely to forget over the weekend – and good news released on a Monday so the governing party can milk it for all the PR worth the entire week…

But admittedly, it always surprises me when they do it yet again. This time, with sediment  results that show arsenic and selenium levels- among others- that are ‘potentially significant’. http://www.biv.com/article/20140829/BIV0114/140829914/mount-polley-sediment-samples-contain-potentially-significant

“…There were some exceedances. This is to be expected because these materials samples were and are believed to be the material that was spilled out of the tailings impoundment,” B.C. Ministry of Environment regional operations director Jennifer McGuire told reporters in an August 29 conference call.

“Copper and iron were significantly higher than the standards that we have here in B.C.”

Furthermore, the ministry said it discovered “low but potentially significant” levels of arsenic and selenium concentrations within the sediment samples.

The results were collected from inside the tailings impoundment on August 12, and from outside the tailings impoundment on August 12 and 15.

McGuire said these most recent results confirm the need for long-term monitoring throughout the Cariboo region.”

No kidding. In going to the government update website for the Mount Polley situation, http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/eemp/incidents/2014/mount-polley/, I found several updates, including one that went to an error 404 for a drinking water sample: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/eemp/incidents/2014/mount-polley/mount-polley/pdf/20140829/MemoQuesnelLakeWaterQualityAug16DW.pdf

sediement new

 

 

 

 

Now, this isn’t the first time this has happened in a public sample, and it’s understandable that on occasion a typo might happen.. but it seems to have happened often with test results. I looked at the address bar and it shows two ‘ mountpolley’ portions between the forward slash bars. Clicking on the address link as shown gives you an error.

However, not unfamiliar with this kind of obfuscation, I removed one of the ‘mountpolley’ portion and did get to the proper link:   http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/eemp/incidents/2014/mount-polley/pdf/20140829/MemoQuesnelLakeWaterQualityAug16DW.pdf

Although the file date is the 29th, the report date is the 27th and show high amounts of aluminum, in fact as per the link above, ‘three magnitudes above the Health Canada drinking water guideline.’

The same error can be found with water quality samples for aquatic life here, as per the main site directory above ” http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/eemp/incidents/2014/mount-polley/mount-polley/pdf/20140829/MemoQuesnelLakeWaterQualityAug16AL.pdf ”

Again, error 404 due to ‘mountpolley’ being listed twice in the web address.

Remove one and you have this: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/eemp/incidents/2014/mount-polley/pdf/20140829/MemoQuesnelLakeWaterQualityAug16AL.pdf

Copper and aluminum were above the chronic and/or the acute guidelines( note it doesn’t differentiate between BC guidelines or Health Canada on this one) on all samples.

Getting down to the heart of the matter.

The money shot happens at this link. And note these are listed as “legal sediment quality samples” which for the record ,are different from just regular lab samples because they follow a parameter set out for evidence admissible to court.

Click to access MemoQuesnelLkSedimentQualityAug7toAug15FINAL.pdf

Now, anyone who can read, can see that historical levels of contaminants in this area have been exceeded to some level, since testing began in 2010- which is apparently, supposed to make everyone feel good that current levels are not that much higher.

“Elevated levels of seven chemical elements have been found by B.C. government staff in the sediment near a mine tailings spill.

The Ministry of Environment says copper, iron, manganese, arsenic, silver, selenium and vanadium were found in concentrations that exceeded provincial standards during testing near the Mount Polley mine Aug. 12 and Aug. 15.

The early August failure of the mine’s tailings pond released millions of cubic metres of water and silt into local fish-bearing streams.

But the ministry says testing before the spill, at the end of May, also showed the seven chemical elements exceeded the same provincial guidelines.”

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Mount+Polley+mine+breach+Elevated+levels+chemical+elements/10161351/story.html#ixzz3BrMyXIGs

Is it just me, or did the provincial government just admit to knowing to not only testing the area prior to the failure, but also knowing that the levels of toxic elements exceeded the health guidelines?????

Which leads me to more questions…. did the good people of Likely know about this higher level? Were they advised this by government officials? Did this testing have anything to do with the alleged breaches revealed by a former employee?

The samples of both water and sediment in the impact zone clearly show the government has no idea of the long term impact, and in fact, the current health impact on local residents. Air quality tests were either not done, or not released. The plume in Quesnel Lake is moving, is fluid and will change dependent on wind, rain and other conditions altering dilutions.

And still, with all this info… our government, Imperial Metals and Mount Polley Mining Corporation, are not moving.

Not moving one bit to ensure the future that the people of this area deserve and have worked for.

*** Alexandra Morton has samples that need to be independently analyzed separately from government and is trying to raise the money needed to do that- it’s a very expensive venture, so she has set up a crowd-funding page strictly for this at the following link: http://www.gofundme.com/ds4rtk

16 thoughts on “Friday afternoon on a long weekend, do you know where your government is? “Error 404- information or government not found””

  1. The thing is, LY, they don’t care. Simple as that. They do not care. And why should they? They have a ‘lock’ on the rest of their term and then they will trot out the same old nonsense about wealth creation and lower taxes together with photo-ops and they will get in again. Don’t you see? the real problem is us. WE allow this to happen by not voting and, when we do vote, permitting ourselves to be limited by them in choice. Nincompoops or crooks? We choose liars and crooks over nincompoops. I say vote GREEN, Tangerine or even Rhinoceros…. how can it get any worse?

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  2. My hope is that one day we will see Deborah Epps the head of Water Quality for the province on the stand being questioned by a lawyer about her role in what is really happening here.

    I do not trust their commentary on the results. I need to see the lab results. Laila are the lab results available to the public?

    Laila this is great reporting. I am so pleased to know that you will not let this massive collusion to hide the truth from the citizens by the bc liberal government to continue to happen. Sooner or later people will know the truth. Just like in Walkerton it took a while but eventually the truth was revealed. Right now the public servants are living in fear of their political masters. You see it in their faces and hear it in their voices whenever they talk on this issue. You know that they hate themselves for colluding in this and at some time they will no longer be able to live with themselves.

    Your Friend and Fan…ross buchanan

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    1. Bear1733 . Your comment …’on the stand being questioned by a lawyer about her role….”
      I immediately thought of Christy and a BC Trail trial……. I can dream cant I?

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  3. Right on, Laila – and is ‘exceedances’ even a word? And typical that they would admit to knowing about ‘exceedances’ back in May.

    Thank you and keep up the good work! Diane Kennedy Victoria

    From: “No Strings Attached : Laila Yuile on politics and life in B.C.” Reply-To: “No Strings Attached : Laila Yuile on politics and life in B.C.” Date: Saturday, August 30, 2014 at 1:14 AM To: dk Subject: [New post] Friday afternoon on a long weekend, do you know where your government is? “Error 404- information or government not found”

    WordPress.com Laila posted: “We can be seduced…by powerful political groups that promise more wealth and lower taxes. Those with power can use clever, psychological tricks and play upon our weaknesses and brokenness in order to attract us to their way of thinking. We can be manipul”

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    1. It’s not unusual to find high levels of certain metals in areas where mining occurs or deposits naturally occur. Where it becomes a problem is if the levels are too high for immediate exposure or consumption – and- when the levels reach a point where long term exposure or consumption can be an issue.

      Now they are saying the water is still safe to drink and at the same time, not to drink the cloudy water, water that smells or looks off ( common sense) and that boiling it wont make a difference.
      ” According to Health Canada, there is no weight of evidence for adverse health effects of aluminum at levels above the guideline. However, it should be noted that the values at 7.5 m are 3 orders of magnitude above the Health Canada guideline” They are pointing out how high the levels are. Here is what the CDC says about aluminum http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/phs/phs.asp?id=1076&tid=34

      Questions need to be asked.

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  4. There is nothing Harper and his Campbell/Clark BC Liberals can say, that will convince most of us, they are upstanding Canadians. When any of them open their mouths, I automatically deem it a lie and most of the time they are lying. Harper rewarded Campbell the post as, High Commissioner to the U.K. Now Campbell has the company of Nigel Wright. Campbell did a lot of underhanded work for Harper.

    Gordon Campbell twice lied and cheated to win his elections. The BCR wasn’t for sale. The HST wasn’t on his radar either.

    Christy too pulled a whopper of a lie, to be elected. 100,000 jobs for the people of BC? Families first? Ditzy Christy gave the jobs of building the LNG plant near Prince Rupert, to the Chinese. BC’s ship building contract was given to Poland. It is my understanding? There will be thousands of Chinese brought over for, Christy and Harper’s Northern BC mining plan. Where do the 400 year old Douglas Fir logs go, that are being hacked down near Port Alberni. Harper did make a trip to Vancouver Island and the Chinese are after our ancient forests.

    Harper lied and cheated to win his so called majority, with his robo-call scam. Two Americans directly participated in two Conservative campaigns in Ontario. Front Porch Strategies were accused of the robo-calls, that came out of the US.

    The Harper supporters are of Harper’s Borg. They are not permitted to have their own opinions. Their opinions are Harper’s opinions or else, vindictive Stevie will get even.

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  6. Who is in charge of the clattering train?
    The axles creak and the couplings strain,
    and the pace is hot and the points are near,
    and sleep hath deadened the driver’s ear,
    and the signals flash through the night in vain,
    for death is in charge of the clattering train.

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  7. The government is not going to tell the truth about the poisons in the water or earth following the disaster in Likely. If any truth is to be told it will be by individuals or groups dedicated to the environment. A majority of people voted the lieberals into office and this is what we get. Did anyone expect anything different from the lieberals? Its just too bad, that those who voted for the lieberals and the lieberals themselves can’t be forced to drink the water every day for a year.

    Most of this will be swept aside by other “news” items and be forgotten, until people start dying of cancer in the area. Then it will take 20 yrs of court battles for settlements and by that time Christy and her lieberals will moved on to other things, which will make them even more money. B.C. voted for Christy Clark and her lieberals and the rest of Canada voted for Harper and his herd. Now we all get to live with it, or die with it. Our country is being polluted to make money/profits for foreign countries and corporations. What do we get out of it?

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  8. I cant wait to see the water “quality’ ( insert contaminent levels) reprots after next Springs melt runoff.
    This is going to be the poisonous “gift” that just keeps on giving………..

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  11. Also to quote a piece from an article:

    In due course, we will discover some of the causes of the Mt. Polley tailings failure. But the expert panel, distinguished as they are, will have limited impact unless it addresses regulatory failure, or the perception of regulatory failure.

    Students of natural disasters recognise the name Aberfan. The Aberfan (1966) expert panel was a technical success. Only when the secret UK cabinet papers were revealed after 30 years did political scientists discover that the expert panel was designed not only to address technical issues but also to avoid nasty political issues of a much broader nature. We trust (and hope) that this will not be a parallel for the Mount Polley expert inquiry.

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