Red Dog Mine problems offer small preview of Pebble

Tag: acid red

Of all the fictions peddled by opponents of the clean water initiatives and supporters of the Pebble mine, few are as fanciful as the fairy tale they flog about Red Dog Creek. According to them it was so naturally befouled that nothing could live in it, but now, thanks to mining, it so teems with trout a weir is required to prevent a fish infestation. Baloney.

I was director of environmental affairs with Cominco, reporting to the president during the time when this mine was starting up acid red.

Red Dog Creek runs 2 1/2 miles from the Red Dog Mine to Ikalukrok Creek, which, 25 miles later, enters the Wulik River. It was a small stream dependent on precipitation and groundwater, and it was frozen solid in the winter. Based on a handful of samples, collected only after substantial exploration disturbance had occurred, it had low water quality caused by heavy metal and acidic discharge that impacted it as far as the Ikalukrok. This was the greatest extent of any reported natural contamination.

Once mining began this drastically changed. The Red Dog Mine water management plan suffered from inadequate hydrologic, meteorological, and geologic baseline data. For example, no groundwater data were collected for mine planning, and when an aquifer laced with heavy metals was intercepted there were no plans to redirect it from acid red Creek.