Provincial environmental investigators were onsite this week at Pan Pacific Aggregates' mine site in the Carlson Lake area.
The Ministry of Environment's Water, Land and Air Protection program had an ecosystems biologist speak with the mining company's environmental technician. The ministry's biologist said he could not comment because he is currently investigating the sites.
The Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources' district inspector raised concerns over Pan Pacific's road work and culverts in fish-bearing streams after his inspection June 15.
"Our immediate response was we issued a stop work order in and around riparian wetlands," said Graeme McLaren, the ministry's executive director for the southwest region, in a phone interview July 13. "The company immediately stopped work in that area."
McLaren said the company could not resume work in those areas until an approved plan is in place. He had just received the plan from Pan Pacific's biologist, and McLaren's next step would be to look at the report to determine if it meets requirements.
The ministry had directed Pan Pacific to the Health, Safety and Reclamation code for mines in B.C. section on riparian areas. McLaren said any further action must comply with the code. During a dry spell over the summer, the company can go into the riparian areas to correct the problems, such as upgrading culverts, he said. He added the culverts were in bad shape before Pan Pacific got there, and fish could not get through them.
If the company proposes to do more work beyond its existing exploration and quarry permits, such as building new roads, he said it would need to submit a new application. "Given the nature of the concerns that are expressed, I suspect there would be greater consideration given to a wider range of people about this," McLaren said.
McLaren said the ministry met with the Sechelt Indian Band 10 days earlier to discuss the band's concerns with the degree of consultation over permit amendments. He planned to compile more information to send to the Band then go back for another meeting.
Discussions between the two ministries and Pan Pacific are ongoing.
Pan Pacific mine manager Jim Balmer said the Ministry of Environment's biologist was looking at the area with Pan Pacific's environmental technician July 13, measuring the stream width to ensure the open-bottomed structures to be put in will be the proper size.
Balmer said they plan to repair the problems the ministries raised. He said the work in the riparian areas had stopped prior to the stop-work order because they were finished exploration in those areas. The drilling contractors left because they had finished their drilling, he said. Nobody lost his or her job over the stop-work order, he added.
Balmer said they would go in to the riparian areas during the ministry's suggested window of time when fish would be least affected, to replace culverts with the open-bottomed structures.
"The culverts were put in in an effort to correct substandard pipes that were rusty and interfering with water flow," Balmer said. "In our ignorance, those rusted pieces were replaced with good clean culverts, but we didn't realize the creek was fish bearing. It turns out we made a mistake."
District inspector Ed Taje's report states, "in one case the old rusted and collapsed culvert was left in place and a new culvert placed on top of it."
The report surfaced publicly at a meeting put on by concerned residents July 6.
