Giant Mine cleanup needs no environmental assessment: regulator

The Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board has ruled that the federal government's $300-million plan to clean up the defunct Giant gold mine near Yellowknife doesn't require an environmental assessment.

The board's decision, which was made late last week, surprised environmental activists who had called for an independent review of Ottawa's remediation plan for the site.

"We've had mineral exploration of six drill holes referred for an environmental assessment," Kevin O'Reilly, a former city councillor who has pushed for a review, told CBC News on Friday.

"But here we have a billion-dollar remediation project next to the Northwest Territories' largest community, and that doesn't go for an environmental assessment? There's something wrong with that picture."

Staff at the board, which issues land use permits and water licences, said its reasons for deciding to skip the environmental assessment will be publicly available after its agreement is signed with the federal government. That is expected to happen early this week.

The Giant Mine produced more than seven million ounces of gold from 1948 until it closed in 1999.

The federal Indian and Northern Affairs Department has since been responsible for cleaning up 237,000 tonnes of poisonous arsenic trioxide dust currently stored in 15 underground chambers.

The department's remediation plan proposes freezing the toxic dust — a byproduct of the gold refining process — and keeping it in vaults beneath the mine.

But O'Reilly said he isn't convinced that freezing the arsenic trioxide dust is the best option, and had wanted to hear a discussion of any alternatives.

"I want to make sure that future generations don't have to be burdened with knowing when that block might start to unfreeze, and what switches have to be flipped, and so on," he said. "We got to make sure we get it right."

He added that he's worried about trusting the government to treat the arsenic-contaminated groundwater that flows through the mine site.

The Yellowknives Dene First Nation had also wanted to see an environmental review of Ottawa's remediation plan, as did Yellowknife Coun. Shelagh Montgomery.

Montgomery said she is troubled by a potential conflict of interest, since inspectors with the Indian and Northern Affairs Department would be responsible for enforcing a cleanup plan that the department designed itself.

"If it went to an [environmental assessment], it broadens the scope a little bit more and hopefully a little bit more independent insight can be brought forward," she said.

An environmental assessment could still happen if the City of Yellowknife or the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board were to recommend one.