Photo: The Canadian Press
Alberta’s government refuses to release information about toxic pollutants in snowfall downwind from mountaintop removal coal mines.
The data was collected by two senior provincial government scientists who conducted a study of the impact of British Columbia mine wind on a pristine alpine lake in Alberta. They recently published a paper concluding that the sediments in Window Lake are just as contaminated as the lakes downstream from the oil sands.
They also analyzed pollutants in the area’s snowpack, data not yet published. That data appears to have been presented to senior Alberta Environment officials in November.
The Canadian Press has filed a Freedom of Information request to publish this presentation. In response, the news agency received a copy of slides containing information that was already public, without major redactions.
One note that survived the redactions suggests that the full paper includes information on pollutant levels in the snowpack around Window Lake.
Under the heading “Next Steps,” the released documents say, “Additional lake sediment and snow sampling is proposed.”
The way the edits were justified also suggests that the data exists. The information was removed under sections of the law that allow the government to withhold documents that may contain valuable intellectual property or to protect a researcher’s right to publish first.
The Canadian Press contacted an Alberta scientist not employed by the province who has seen the data and confirms it exists.
Bill Donahue is another independent scientist in British Columbia and former head of Alberta’s Department of Environmental Monitoring and Science. He has not seen the snow cover study.
He pointed out that even if initial concentrations of heavy metals and hydrocarbons of the type found downwind of mines are low, they do not dissipate and gradually accumulate in the environment. Also, pollutants from snowpack are often released in a concentrated pulse as months of accumulation are released during spring melt.
“The amount in the snowpack at any given time of year can vary, but it is an absolute certainty that the regional deposition of pollutants on all landscapes today is much higher than it should be and that coal mining in (Southeastern B.C.) AD) is the cause,” he wrote in an email.
The paper on the sediments in Window Lake, published in November in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, reached some troubling conclusions.
It found that levels of pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic compounds, known carcinogens, reached 30 times pre-industrial levels and in some cases exceeded Canadian guidelines for protecting aquatic life. Levels of selenium, toxic to fish, doubled.
Alberta Environment did not make any of the paper’s authors available for interviews at the time.
Other scientists in both the United States and Canada praised the work.
Emily Bernhardt, an ecologist at Duke University in North Carolina who has published extensively on mountain coal mining, called the research groundbreaking and compelling. She said this confirms what other papers have found – that mountaintop coal mining spreads pollutants outside the mine sites.
Alberta’s United Conservative government currently blocks coal mining exploration and development in the province’s Rockies.
However, the policy is implemented by ministerial order, which may be revoked at any time without notice.
Alberta Energy Minister Peter Guthrie said there are no plans to lift the order. But he did not specify how long it would remain in effect or indicate that it would be reinforced by legislation or regulation.
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