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 On Feb. 3, Canada's federal court will consider a case to compell the minister of the environment to ensure Canada's mining industry reports where and how much toxic pollution is being generated. The lawsuit is being led by Ecojustice for Mining Watch Canada and Great Lakes United. The group argues that the federal minister broke the law when he did not direct mining companies to report the huge amounts of pollution found in tailings ponds and waste rock piles through he National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI).
The NPRI requires everyone to report publically pollution releases and what type of pollution it is. Companies like Evraz (formerly IPSCO), for example, are required to tell the public
and through the NPRI the residents of Regina what is going into the
air, water and soil from their operations north of Regina.
The lawyer for Ecojustice said, "The Canadian public - and especially residents living downstream from mining operations - have the right to scrutinize the environmental and health hazards these mining companies continue to create".
Unlike
in Canada, the United States government requires mining companies to
report the amount of pollutants they release under the equivalent to
the NPRI, the U.S. Toxic Release Inventory. In the U.S, the mining
companies account for 27% of all pollutants released eventhough they
only represent 1/2% of all industries reporting to the Inventory. In contrast
to the U.S. mining companies, the Canadian mining companies account for
more than 97% of the total pollutants in Canada. "There
are at least 80 facilities across the country that are not reporting
their tailings and waste rock pollution to the NPRI. If the U.S.
figures are any indication, this could be many millions of kilograms of
toxic pollution," said John Jackson, Director of Clean Production and
Toxics for Great Lakes United. "But, so long as the Minister of the
Environment continues to direct the mining industry to break the law
and conceal these figures, we'll never know."
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