Anglers: unite on destruction of fishing lakes in BC

Migrating pelicans on Fish Lake

Last July I wrote a post about the struggle the First Nations were having trying to save their lake, Tzenzaicut Lake also known as Fish Lake (situated about 125 km southwest of Williams Lake, BC) from being “used” as a dumping ground for the Prosperity Mine, a gold and copper open pit mine.  As I mentioned in the post, they have to do a lot of digging and leaching with chemicals in order to extract the ore from the gold and copper deposits.

Big Onion Lake

Although the mining company, Taseko Mines Ltd, acknowledged the destruction of Fish Lake, they passed the provincial environmental assessment last week and “Taseko is extremely confident that EA approvals will be granted by both levels of Government.”

Taseko Mines requires at least 4,200,000 m3/year of groundwater pumped from deep aquifers.  The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency questioned where is Taseko going to get all that water?  So, if they’re using the lake which is full of water as a tailings pond, what are the local indigenous people going to drink, where is the water for them?  Their wells will run dry at this rate.

“According to the proponent, excavation of the open pit will entail dewatering of this aquifer (Fish Lake) regardless of any need for water balance supplementation.”

Fish Lake will not be the only lake affected.  Several lakes including well known fishing hotspots Big Onion Lake, Prosperity Lake and Wasp Lake will also be harmed.  These flow into the Taseko River which is a tributary of the Chilko River.

If you are an avid angler or have kayaked along the Taseko River, please contact:

Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency
Prosperity Panel Secretariat
160 Elgin Street
Place Bell Canada
Ottawa  ON  K1A 0H3
Telephone: 1-866-582-1884
Email: Prosperity.Review@ceaa-acee.gc.ca   refer to CEAR reference number 09-05-44811

Related posts:

1. A lake as a dumping ground for mines?
2. Canada’s Fake Lake Campaign
3. BC using rivers and lakes as tailing ponds

Tags: big onion lake, fish lake, fishing hotspots, taseko mines ltd, wasp lake, williams lake bc