The first public comment period on the provincial environmental assessment for Castle has ended. But you can still speak up to demand a federal environmental assessment for the mine today.
Tell BC’s Environmental Assessment Office that enough is enough: we can’t afford another massive coal mine expansion in the Elk Valley. Make your official comment in the first phase of the environmental assessment of the Castle Mountain coal mine expansion.
Key points to consider (but please write your own comment):
- The proposal would add selenium and other water pollution to the already heavily polluted upper Fording River, where trout populations have recently collapsed, and to the Elk River and Lake Koocanusa.
- Teck has no viable long-term plan to address selenium pollution over thousands of years in the Elk Valley, only short-term water treatment plans.
- The proposal would destroy more than three square kilometres of rare red-listed high-elevation grasslands, which is critical winter habitat for bighorn sheep.
- The project would continue coal mining in the Elk Valley for many decades, releasing more than 20 million tonnes of carbon over the life of the mine and more than 20 million tonnes every year when the coal is burned, equal to a third of BC’s current annual emissions, even though we desperately need to reduce carbon emissions.
Read more about the problems with the Castle mine expansion.
Thank you for speaking up!