The main writer at the Against the Flow blog does not normally reveal his or her identity for the week's column

The writers at the Against the Flow blog do not normally state their identity above each column, but this week is different, as this writer introduces his experience in an earlier part of his career when he was Deputy Minister of Environment in the New Brunswick government. At that time, the Environment Department had an important staff member, Mike Sprague, who had terrific knowledge of the mining industry and some of the environmental impacts of that industry in the Province of New Brunswick. What follows is a requiem for Mike.

​Back in the day, the jovial and very effective Minister of the Environment, Vaughn Blaney, and this writer, as his Deputy Minister, teamed up to enforce the “polluter pays” principle and introduce a number of measures and new legislation including  the Clean Water Act, the Beverage Container Act (placing deposit return on containers), the Environmental Trust Fund Act, and as well, closed down most rural “dumps” in favour of engineered Sanitary Landfills with leachate collection in order to protect groundwater supplies.

We also hired tough and knowledgeable retired RCMP officers to prosecute alleged polluters, no matter what their last name was.

The staff at the Environment department was proud of our strong protection of the environment. One of these was Mike Sprague, mentioned above.
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When we asked high-powered industry executives into our minister’s office to explain a pollution situation, particularly about the mining sector, Mike was one of the staffers we called in frequently. to explain such situations, particularly in the mining sector. Mike was extremely articulate and able to explain our concerns about the need for care in handling mine tailings.

For instance, in the Bathurst area massive, several-acre, tailings ponds were needed to keep tailings, often containing, lead and zinc, under water for very extended periods to protect the environment. Leaks from those ponds would have permanent and dangerous implications.

Most people are familiar with the dangers of lead, such as in older types of paint, making it highly dangerous to humans, and especially children. Even small amounts of lead can have devastating effects that potentially last a lifetime, including damage to the brain and other essential organs of the body.

As noted above, Mike was extremely adept at explaining the dangers of such pollutants to even the most hard-nosed industry executives. He had the knowledge and the talent to help us get our messages across. In his day, he opened the eyes of those who may not have been fully aware of the consequences of their actions.

Unfortunately, the province no longer has Mike on its polluter defense team. He died prematurely due to a combination of personal and family hardships.

Nonetheless, care and attention are still very relevant today, especially for the province’s mining industry. All mining companies are not necessarily rogue actors, but our province must be on its guard and insist on strong environmental impact assessments of its own, not relying only federal impact assessments, conducted one level above this province. It is always better to prevent environmental problems, rather than putting emphasis on clean-up after the fact.

As in the logging industry, a cut and run ethic is not smart and leads to trouble.

The government of Premier Susan Holt is looking to the mining sector as one of its key growth areas for the province and appears to be placing its main hopes on the massive Sisson mine as a project of “National Importance” under Prime Minister Mark Carney’s national strategy.

The proposed Sisson Mine near Fredericton poses significant environmental risks to the Nashwaak Valley, including potential contamination of the Nashwaak River and Wolastoq (the mighty St. John River watershed), with potential destruction of fish habitat for Atlantic salmon, and threats to wetlands.

A large open-pit mine would necessitate a massive under-the-water tailings storage facility. The potential for acid rock drainage are major concerns. Critics highlight risks from a dam breach similar to the Mount Polley disaster in British Columbia.

Polley is considered Canada’s worst-ever environmental disaster. In 2014, a tailings dam breach at the B.C. Mount Polley copper-gold mine released 25 million cubic meters of wastewater and mining waste into Polley Lake and nearby lakes and creeks.

The damage from this major incident has been enormous and caused massive environmental impacts, with toxic waste destroying a crucial sockeye salmon habitat, as well as polluting always-vital drinking water.

The spill, equivalent to 10,000 Olympic swimming pools, included 134.1 tonnes of lead, 2.8 tonnes of cadmium, and 2.1 tonnes of arsenic.

Note the reference, above, to the potential for acid rock drainage at Sisson. This is the same dangerous phenomenon identified by Mike Sprague for the Bathurst area and the danger of tailing ponds leaching out dangerous metals with health and environmental implications for generations. The heavy metal, lead, was one of the very serious contaminants at the Mount Polley disaster, as well.

The threatened Nashwaak River watershed

Of course, political leaders such as N.B. Premier Holt and National Energy and Natural Resources Minister, Tim Hodgson point to the fact that Sisson would employ 200 to 300 people and have a lifespan of 27 years. That looks like a lot of jobs and wages for a small province like New Brunswick.
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If Mike Sprague were still on the job, no doubt he would warn us to be vigilant and remember that “everything that glitters is not gold.” He would also be courageous about telling us the truth.

Artist’s impression of the proposed open-pit Sisson mine and tailings pond