Five year-old River Summer looks on at Brenot Creek landslide (Photo: Leigh Summer) A series of landslides above the northeast BC community of Hudson’s Hope has been dumping contaminated soils into several local creeks, extending now to the Peace River. Local landowners whose water supply has been affected are demanding answers.
Continue readingTag: Health and Environment
The Common Sense Canadian: “Captured” environmental regulator thinks of Kitimat smelter owner Rio Tinto as “client”
Rio Tinto Alcan’s Kitimat smelter (Rio Tinto Alcan/Canada Newswire) Rweprinted with permission from DeSmog Canada. Move over Duffy diaries. There’s a new black book in town. That’s the detailed work journal of B.C. Ministry of Environment senior official Frazer McKenzie, which recounts conversations between ministry officials and Rio Tinto Alcan while
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rio Tinto skips air scrubbers to cuts costs at Kitimat smelter
Rio Tinto Alcan’s Kitimat smelter (Damien Gillis) The following story is republished with permission from Desmog Canada When the B.C. Ministry of Environment approved Rio Tinto Alcan’s application to modernize its aluminum smelter in Kitimat, B.C., local resident Emily Toews assumed that would mean an improvement in the plant’s emissions. But
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Mount Polley: Interior Health issues new warning against drinking Quesnel Lake water
Debris pouring into Quesnel Lake (Photo: Farhan Umedaly, Vovo Productions / Desmog.ca) An advisory from Interior Health yesterday raises fresh questions about the quality of drinking water from Quensnel Lake following the Mount Polley tailings dam breach. “Although test results continue to show that water sourced from Quesnel Lake is safe to
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Biologist documents blue film on Quesnel River following Mount Polley spill
Independent biologist Alexandra Morton has documented the appearance of a mysterious blue film on the surface of Quesnel Lake and the Quesnel River. Morton has been surveying the region’s aquatic systems – taking water samples, video and photos – in the wake of the Mount Polley tailings spill. She posted the above video and
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Is Mount Polley making people sick? Anecdotal clues, questions mount
Hazeltine Creek following Mount Polley Mine’s tailings dam breach (Photo: Chris Blake) A series of anecdotal reports of illness from suffered by people in close proximity to the Mount Polley Mine tailings dam breach is prompting a local First Nation to push the premier for a study of potential airborne contaminants – and calls for an independent inquiry
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Nanotechnology: Panacea or Pandora’s box?
Matthias Kulka/Corbis Nanoparticles can be used to deliver vaccines, treat tumours, clean up oil spills, preserve food, protect skin from sun and kill bacteria. They’re so useful for purifying, thickening, colouring and keeping food fresh that they’re added to more products every year, with the nanofoods market projected to reach
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Toxic Mexican copper mine spill prompts water restrictions
Grupo Mexico’s Buenavista del Cobre mine Read this Aug 11 story from mining-technology.com on a toxic wastewater spill from a Mexican copper mine. Mexican authorities have imposed restrictions on water supplies in some cities and towns in the northern part of the country, including the Sonora state capital of Hermosillo, following
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Mount Polley Mine: Concerns linger amid positive water quality tests
Aerial view of debris from Mount Polley Minine tailings pond breach (Cariboo Regional District) Read this August 9 update from CBC.ca on the water quality situation surrounding the Mount Polley Mine tailings pond breach. The B.C. government has approved the controlled release into Hazeltine Creek of water in Polley Lake
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: BC mine’s tailings pond breach forces emergency water use ban
Photo: Cariboo Regional District Emergency Operations Centre facebook page The apparent breach of a tailings pond connected Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley Mine, near Likely, BC, has led to an emergency water ban from The Cariboo Regional District. The following update was issued by the district on its Emergency Operations facebook page this morning:
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: First Nation slams coverup of mercury poisoning report
Grassy Narrows First Nation member protests suspected mercury poisoning in 2013 (Kevin Konnyu / Flickr) By The Canadian Press TORONTO – A northern Ontario First Nation says it has obtained an unreleased report that shows the federal and provincial governments failed to properly address widespread mercury poisoning among its members.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Fraser Surrey Docks: Metro has no right to regulate air quality
Fraser Surrey Docks is seeking to expand coal exports – something Metro Vancouver takes issue with Read this July 9 story by Jeff Nagel in the Peace Arch News on the battle now working through the courts regarding Metro Vancouver’s legal authority to restrict coal exports based on health risks to
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: RiverBlue doc asks: How dirty are your blue jeans?
“How dirty are your blue jeans?” That’s the question posed by the forthcoming, Vancouver-produced documentary RiverBlue. The film examines the pollution produced by the blue jean manufacturing and tannery sectors, also exploring the latest technologies and cutting-edge solutions to the problem. Jeans are dyed with harmful chemicals (RiverBlue) From China’s Pearl River
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Nanaimo council rejects incinerator: “We won’t be Vancouver’s garbage dump”
Council chambers were overflowing with incinerator opponents last night (Photo: Trish Kuziek/Facebook) Read this April 15 story from the Nanaimo Daily News on city council’s unanimous rejection of a proposed waste incinerator to burn Metro Vancouver’s garbage at Duke Point. Nanaimo council voted unanimously Monday to rule out the city’s support for a proposed
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: With Duke Point incinerator, property values could go up in smoke
The following is a letter from Common Sense Canadian economic columnist and Gabriola Island resident Erik Andersen to Nanaimo city council, which is hearing arguments on a controversial, proposed waste incinerator at Duke Point this evening. Over the past several decades the City of Nanaimo has single-mindedly pursued a course of beautifying
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: 4 years after BP oil spill, health impacts linger
Health concerns continue to do many who worked to clean up the BP oil spill (photo: Wikimedia Commons) By Stacey Plaisance And Kevin McGill, The Associated Press CHALMETTE, La. – When a BP oil well began gushing crude into the Gulf of Mexico four years ago, fisherman George Barisich used his
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Alberta doctor to US senate: Canada ‘lying’ about Tar Sands health impacts
Dr. John O’Connor (photo: saveourmedevac.ca) Read this Feb. 26 story by Mychaylo Prystupa in the Vancouver Observer on Alberta doctor John O’Connor’s warning to US senators that Canada is concealing the health impacts of the Tar Sands. A northern Alberta doctor warned U.S. Senators on what he says have been the devastating
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Residents of Peace River, AB wrestle with authorities over bitumen fumes
Fumes from these bitumen storage tanks are allegedly driving Alberta families from their homes. Read this Feb. 20th VICE article that provides a local look inside our Jan. 28th Reported Elsewhere story about the state of northern Alberta families vacating their homes from bitumen fumes emitted by Baytex Energy storage tanks. The Labrecques,
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Beijing air pollution soars to alarming levels
by Didi Tang, Associated Press BEIJING – When the air gets really bad, Beijing says it has an emergency plan to yank half the city’s cars off the road. The only problem is: It may be difficult to ever set that plan in motion. It wasn’t triggered in January, when
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Fracking tied to birth defects: Colorado study
Congenital heart defects are the leading cause of all infant deaths in the US A new study, published last week in the scientific journal Environmental Health Perspectives, draws a correlation between birth defects and maternal exposures to natural gas. After examining 124,842 births between 1996 and 2009 in rural Colorado, the study found a higher
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