First Nation launches challenge of B.C.’s approval to raise Mount Polley mine dam

A First Nation in B.C. has filed a legal challenge over the plan to allow the Mount Polley mine to raise its tailings dam a decade after a similar storage site at the mine gave way, creating one of the province’s largest environmental disasters.

The Xatśūll First Nation has filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court requesting a judicial review of the government decision to approve the raising of the dam by four metres without “meaningful” conversations with the nation.

Chief Rhonda Phillips told a news conference in front of Vancouver’s courthouse that the province is allowing work at the Mount Polley tailings dam to proceed without an environmental assessment.

Phillips says her nation also wants a court injunction that would prevent the raising of the dam while the court process is underway.

In August 2014, a tailings dam at the open-pit gold and copper mine in B.C.’s Cariboo region collapsed, spilling waste into nearby waterways, a disaster the Xatśūll says has devastated its territory and is “still harming the nation’s rights, culture, and way of life.”

A statement in March from the provincial mining and environment ministers says the extra height for the dams is to make sure spring runoff can be safely managed and that the approval came after comprehensive technical reviews by experts, as well as in consultation with First Nations.