WATCH ABOVE: 16×9 Producer Brennan Leffler talks about Canada’s contaminated sites, and why they’re a $7-billion problem for taxpayers.
I can’t see it, smell it, taste or touch it. But I know it’s here.
“It” is 237,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxide dust.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Two hundred and thirty-seven thousand tonnes of deadly, carcinogenic dust.
And I, along with 16×9’s Chief Correspondent Carolyn Jarvis and Director of Photography Kirk Neff, am standing right on top of it.
READ MORE: Toxic dust buried under Yellowknife’s ‘Giant Mine’ to cost taxpayers $900M
Sometimes, my job takes me to wonderful places. But this isn’t one of those times, and to be honest, it’s making me a bit nervous.
The fact that dust, of any kind, could ever weigh that much is difficult to conceptualize. They tell me its equivalent to filling up 14 twelve-story office towers with the stuff. But still, it’s hard to imagine.
It all came from the now-defunct Giant Mine in Yellowknife. It was one of the longest continuous gold mining operations in Canadian history.
For 51 years, the mine extracted as much of the precious metal as it could, sending clouds of arsenic up the stacks, and into the ground.
READ MORE: TIMELINE: Yellowknife’s Giant Mine
In the end, all that’s left is a legacy of mistrust, contamination and, of course, nearly a billion dollar tab for taxpayers, toxic in its own right.
All around the site, there are padlocked barriers and warning signs in big red letters.
“DANGER”
“OPEN PIT”
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“DO NOT FISH”
You get the idea.
The Dene Yellowknives First Nation that has lived off the fish, caribou, plants, berries, water and air here for thousands of years. Residents tell us, on windy days clouds of dust blow across Yellowknife Bay from the mine to Ndilo, where they live and raise their families.
READ MORE: Is there a contaminated site near you?
They tell us they can taste the contamination. Now they go much further away to carry out their traditional hunting and gathering activities.
Kevin O’Reilly, a long-time environmental activist, tells us most of the soil in Yellowknife is contaminated to varying degrees. As we talk, he tells Carolyn, Kirk and I we are probably breathing in some amount of arsenic right now.
WATCH BELOW: Kevin O’Reilly talks about the toxic arsenic trioxide contamination created by the Giant Mine in Yellowknife, NT.
At the mine site, we are reassured there is extensive monitoring ongoing, layer upon layer of safeguards to protect the residents of Yellowknife, living mere kilometres away.
They’re doing their best to stabilize the site, and make sure the toxic stuff never escapes from the underground chambers where it is now imprisoned.
It’s a huge job, and they’ve spent years coming up with contingencies, strategies, generating reports, and downplaying the risks.
They say their efforts to keep dust down, and contaminated structures contained, minimizes the dispersal of arsenic. They don’t say it outright, but the paternal message is clear. We’re looking out for you, don’t worry.
But the locals have heard that before, only to find out the government knew things it didn’t want to disclose.
In the 50s, Ottawa told the mine operators they had to install pollution mitigation systems, which happened eventually. But not before a young boy died from drinking melted snow contaminated with arsenic dust. Months later, the amount of pollution was reduced, but it was not even close to eliminated for decades.
WATCH BELOW: A preview for 16×9’s “Contamination Nation”
Small ads were placed in the local paper, and signs were posted near waterways during that era, warning of the risk. Small comfort to the indigenous people most affected, most of whom neither read the newspaper, nor English.
In the 60s, an arsenic survey was undertaken, yet the results weren’t released until years later. The government said they showed some minor issues, nothing much to worry about. But internal communications show they had decided amongst themselves not to release the study, reasoning the results might cause “alarm”.
READ MORE: Arsenic trioxide: What is it is and why it’s so dangerous
Another larger study was done in the mid-70s, which showed some elevated levels of arsenic in hair samples taken from the local population. To date, no long-term health studies have been done on the local population.
And just two years ago, O’Reilly found out government people had been giving old cost estimates for stabilizing the pollution at Giant Mine. They were saying the bill was $450 million at public meetings, but government documents show the cost estimate had doubled months earlier, to more than $900 million.
How much higher could that number go? Nobody seems to know. Or they won’t say.
And that’s precisely the problem.
They tell me it’ll all be okay in the end, that this time, every precaution is being taken. Still, after a long day of shooting in and around the site, I will admit to feeling some of the community’s paranoia, justified or not.
When we get back to the hotel, I take a long hot shower.
But some things don’t wash away that easily.
16×9’s “Contamination Nation” airs this Saturday at 7pm.
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