The company that owns an idle nickel mine near Wabowden has pleaded guilty and been fined for releasing higher than allowed amounts of the radioactive element radium-226 into Bucko Lake.
CaNickel Mining limited, which owns the Bucko Lake Mine near Wabowden, entered guilty pleas to two offences in provincial court and was ordered to pay $200,000 April 11. The charges were for depositing or allowing the deposit of an effluent that contained a deleterious substance, in excess of authorized limits, in a place where the effluent may enter water frequented by fish. CaNickel also pleaded guilty to one count of failing to follow requirements to collect and test effluent samples on scheduled dates in 2017, as required under the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations of the Fisheries Act. The charges were laid in December 2018 and stem from an investigation by Environmental and Climate Change Canada enforcement officers.
The illegal effluent release took place in July 2017.
In 2016, CaNickel was fined $80,000 after pleading guilty to releasing radium-226 in excess of authorized limits into water frequented by fish and depositing effluent containing nickel in excess of authorized limits into water frequented by fish. Those offences took place in 2014.
Because the company has been convicted of the previous offences, it faced higher fines this time around as a repeat offender.
The Bucko Lake Mine has been in long-term care and maintenance since 2012.
Wabowden Mayor Frances McIvor told the Winnipeg Free Press that Bucko Lake is considered a dead lake and that no one fishes in it, though she said trappers were concerned that the effluent could affect animals who drink from the lake.
Radium-226 accumulates in bones and is carcinogenic, with a half-life of over 1,600 years, retired University of Winnipeg biologist Eva Pip told the Free Press. It also poses a risk to those who eat fish from a contaminated environment.
Money from the fines CaNickel paid will be used to support projects with positive environmental impacts.
CaNickel, which is based in Vancouver but is mostly owned by a Chinese company, has once again been added to Environment and Climate change Canada’s Environmental Offenders Registry, as it was in 2016.
