Doug Watt won’t forget the sound of a tailings pond collapsing at the Mount Polley Mine more than 10 years ago, sending millions of cubic metres of waste into waterways in the British Columbia Interior.
“I went outside, and you could hear the roar. It was like standing close to Niagara Falls,” the 74-year-old said in an interview Tuesday.
Fifteen federal Fisheries Act charges have been laid against Imperial Metals Corp. and two other firms after the dam collapse at the gold and copper mine in what would become one of the largest environmental disasters in provincial history.
Watt said he and other residents in Likely, B.C., the closest community to the dam, are pleased charges have been laid and now “only time will tell whether they actually get found guilty or not.”
“We’re always wondering all the time, are they going to walk away with no accountability for what happened?” he said.
The earthen dam gave way at 1 a.m. on Aug. 4, 2014, sending about 25 million cubic meters of mining waste, including tailings and other materials, into nearby waterways.
A statement from the B.C. Conservation Officer Service issued Tuesday said it worked with the Department of Fisheries and Environment and Climate Change Canada to investigate possible contraventions of the act.
The indictment filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Dec. 6 outlines the charges against Imperial Metals, its subsidiary, Mount Polley Mining and Wood Canada Ltd., an engineering firm.
The indictment alleges the companies allowed a “deleterious substance” from the mine’s tailings pond into several bodies of water “frequented by fish,” including Polley Lake, Hazeltine Creek, Bootjack Creek, Edney Creek and Quesnel Lake.
It alleges the companies’ work “resulted in serious harm to fish that are part of a commercial, recreational or Aboriginal fishery … namely the death of fish or any permanent alteration to, or destruction of, fish habitat.”
Imperial Metals said in a statement the company received the indictment this week, and as the matter is before the courts it won’t be making further comment.
A report from an independent expert panel released in 2015 concluded the key reason for the dam’s failure was its design.
It said the engineers didn’t take into account the complexity of the geological environment in relation to the dam embankment foundation.
It said engineers failed to recognize that the dam was “susceptible to undrained failure” when subject to the stresses associated with the embankment.
A three-year deadline for provincial charges in the case passed in 2017.